Q&A: Vow
Vow
Question
If I originally intended to make a vow forbidding myself oranges, and then changed my mind before I said “oranges” to apples, does the vow take effect? Or since when I said, “I hereby vow not to eat,” I had oranges in mind, do those words not combine with the rest of the sentence, which ended with apples?
Answer
Simply speaking, this depends on a dispute among the medieval authorities (Rishonim). If the vow is created by the intention and the speech is only a condition, then the second vow takes effect (because the first intention was canceled within the span of immediate speech). If the speech is what creates the vow and the intention is only a condition, then it seems this depends on the parallel Talmudic passage about a blessing that one began with one intention and finished with another.
On second thought, it seems to me that even according to the other side it is still a vow, since it is no worse than hand motions.