ANNULMENT OF VOWS To avoid entering the High Holy Days under the pressure of unfulfilled undertakings to God, our custom is to annul or “release” vows on the morning before Rosh HaShana. A related, though more solemn, ceremony takes place immediately prior to Yom Kippur in the form of Kol Nidrei. Judaism is a religion that stresses the sanctity of language, especially when used to accept or impose obligations on oneself. Deep significance attaches to vows and the other verbal undertakings: “If a man makes a vow to God, or makes an oath to obligate himself, he must not break his word. He must do everything he said” (Num. 30:3). In general, it is preferable not to invest voluntary commitments with the sacred status of a vow. “If you refrain from making a vow, you will not be guilty” (Deut. 23:23). “It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it” (Eccl. 5:4). The undertakings involved here relate to vows made to God in respect of behavior not categorically demanded or forbidden by Jewish law. The declaration covers a range of such commitments. A neder is a vow forbidding something to oneself. An isar is a more general category of self-imposed prohibition. A shevua is an oath relating to an action rather than an object. It is a promise to do, or not do, a certain act. A ḥerem renders an object forbidden by designating it as sacred property. A konam designates it as if it were a sacrifice. Nezirut, the acceptance, usually for a period of thirty days, of the status of a nazirite (Num. 6:1–21), involves abstaining from wine or grapes, cutting one’s hair, or contact with a corpse. The basis of release is regret: had one known what one knows now, one would not have undertaken the vow. The release is performed by three adult men sitting as a court, and its effect is retroactive: it is as if the vow had never been made. The entire process emphasizes the solemnity of verbal commitments. We must be true to our word and never lightly promise to do what we may not be able to fulfill. Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik explained that the annulment of vows is similar to the process of repentance itself. We express ḥarata, remorse, for our sins. We would not have committed them had we fully understood what the consequences would be, and had we been reflective rather than impulsive. Thus repentance has the power, as does the annulment of vows, to undo the past, at least insofar as sins between us and God.