Releasing vows about wearing pants
Someone I know wants to start wearing pants after always wearing a skirt (except in pajamas).
Does she need to make a vow to change her habits?
Does it matter whether her motivation is because she wants to make it easier for herself or because she thinks there's no point in being a skirt mom?
If someone makes a mistake in the law and his mistake becomes clear to him, he does not need to dissolve his vows. In addition, this is not a vow, but a custom that was practiced three times, and this is why dissolving vows on the eve of the Lord's Supper is beneficial.
She did not make a vow-breaking ceremony on the eve of the Passover. So that doesn't apply.
Besides the fact that this is not a clarification of an error but a desire to make things easier for herself, will she have to make a vows waiver before the Lay Court? Or can she do something else?
Yes, it is desirable that they have some knowledge of the laws of vows.
Her motivation is a combination of the fact that she thinks pants are modest and that she wants to make it easier for herself. Does this fall under the definition of making a mistake in halakhic law and then she won't need to have her vows absolved?
In the same matter, can a woman appoint a messenger to dissolve vows?
So maybe it's worth doing. And I'm still not sure it should be done, since she didn't really vow/swear and in fact she wore a skirt and not pants, which is a passive rarity. It's hard to say that she didn't wear pants three times, because every woman sometimes doesn't wear pants. On the other hand, according to your description, there are indications that she did it intentionally, meaning that she had the intention of accepting it, and perhaps even said so in practice.
A messenger for the purpose of the Torah is a matter of dispute among the Rishonim. The Shulchan Arbiter rules that it is not done, but the husband can be a messenger.
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