When a community official or leader governs properly and fairly—making certain that the burden he puts on each person is appropriate, having fairly assessed each one such that he puts the greater obligation on this one and eases the obligation of that one—he eliminates the four evil measures: idolatry, immorality, bloodshed and slander.

The esoteric reason for this is as follows: A person who makes a vow must see to fulfill it immediately. Someone who delays in fulfilling his pledge brings about these four measures. This is brought in the Midrash (Vayikra Rabbah 37:1), whichlearns this from Yaakov. Because he delayed fulfilling his vow, he came to the aforementioned four things: [i] idolatry: as it is stated, “Get rid of the alien gods” (Genesis 35:2); [ii] immorality: “And Dinah went out…” (ibid. 34:1) ; [iii] bloodshed: in Shekhem (see ibid. 34:25-26) ; [iv] slander: “And he heard the words of Lavan’s sons” (ibid. 31:1).

It is brought, too, that because Moshe saw the Israelites’ suffering, as it is written (Exodus 2:11), “and he saw their afflictions”—i.e., he took note of the afflictions with which [the Egyptians] oppressed them by making the women do men’s work, and vice versa, and, observing this, Moshe reversed the matter, assigning each person appropriate work, that which was suitable for a man, etc., and also among the men themselves he saw to task each one befittingly—God informed Moshe that on account of this he would merit annulling vows, about which, too, it is stated “between a man and his wife” (Numbers 30:17).

It follows, that by making certain to appropriately assess each person, [leaders] merit annulling vows, and through this people are saved from the abovementioned four measures. Understand this well.