Q&A: Changing a Personal Commitment I Took Upon Myself
Changing a Personal Commitment I Took Upon Myself
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Many years ago I took upon myself to study Torah for a fixed amount of time each day. Now I want to significantly shorten the daily amount of time. Am I required to do a release of vows before three people? If so, do I need to spell out before the three of them the old amount and the new amount? I am asking because I feel uncomfortable about the public aspect of this.
Thank you
Answer
In principle, according to the law, one must specify the vow. But it is enough to specify it before one judge, and not before all three of them (see Shulchan Arukh, Yoreh De’ah 228:14).
However, I assume you performed a release of vows on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, and in Kol Nidrei. Several halakhic decisors wrote there that one does not need to specify the vow. It is commonly assumed that this helps only for vows he has forgotten about (and therefore they waive the specification), but there are decisors who wrote that this releases everything even without specification, for various reasons. See note 25 here:
https://www.yeshiva.org.il/midrash/8722
If this is very difficult for you, there is room to rely on that after the fact.
Thank you very much