In the beginning of Parshas Matos, the Torah teaches us the dinim of nedarim. And if a person makes a neder, he must keep his neder, etc., etc. But the Torah also hints us the din of התרת נדרים, that a יחיד מומחה, an individual who is an expert, or three simple people, three ordinary people, that make up a Beis Din, as the Rashbam says in Bava Basra דף ק״כ עמוד ב׳, they are able to be מתיר נדר, they are able to nullify a neder. Concerning inyan of nedarim, it says in Pirkei Avos פרק ג׳ that נדרים סייג לפרישות, that nedarim is a fence to separation. That if a person wants to separate himself from the inyanim of עולם הזה, from the physical things of this world, so then, by making nedarim, this will help him stay away. If he makes a neder, that certain things which are allowed to be eaten or to be done, etc., etc., and nevertheless he makes a neder that he won't do it, this will keep him away from the inyanim of עולם הזה. Which means that this will help him fulfill the commandment of קדש עצמך במותר לך. We know there is a din, that a person has to make himself holy even in things which are allowed. As the Gemara says in Yevamos דף כ׳ עמוד א׳, and the midrash says in Sifrei in פרשת ראה קפיטל י״ד פסוק כ״א. And some poskim even hold that this is a מצות עשה מדאורייתא, it's a mitzvah from the Torah. And as the Ramban talks about it at length in the beginning of Parshas Kedoshim. So when a person makes nedarim, that helps him fulfill this commandment of קדש עצמך במותר לך. Because like this it's hard for a person to stay away from these things which are allowed. Mila something which is forbidden, a person will not do it. But to stay away and make himself holy even concerning things which are allowed, that's very hard. But if a person makes a neder, like he will not eat the things or not do certain things, so that helps him stay away from those things that he should stay away. So lechora it comes out from here, that to make a neder is a good thing! It helps a person in his avodas Hashem.

But the question is, that it says in Yerushalmi in Nedarim פרק ט׳ הלכה א׳ that לא דייך מה שאסרה לך תורה? Is it not enough for you, what the תורה made forbidden, אלא שאתה מבקש לאסור עליך דברים אחרים? You want to אסר on yourself other things? Yerushalmi says it's not a good idea to make things forbidden, so to make Nedarim is not a good idea. And it says also in Yerushalmi there, that if a person makes a נדר, נקרא חוטא על נפשו. This person is considered a חוטא, a sinner! Because a person should not really make nedarim. And we find a similar contradiction concerning a nazir. We know that Chazal say that the reason the Torah writes the din of nazir right next to the din of sotah, in Chumash you find the dinim of sotah, that if a woman was warned by her husband not to hide with a certain man, and then she went along and did hide with him, so he takes her to the Beis Hamikdash, and she drinks the מים המאררים, etc., etc. And if she is guilty, she is punished. And right after that the Torah tells us the dinim of nazir. That if a person takes it upon himself to become a nazir, he is not allowed to drink wine, not allowed to become טמא to a מת, and he's not allowed to cut his hair, etc., etc. And the reason the Torah writes the din of nazir right close to the din of sotah, to teach us הרואה סוטה בקלקולה יזיר עצמו מן היין. That if a person sees a sotah, so then he should stay away from wine. So it comes out from there that to become a nazir is a good thing! You stay away from wine, it'll keep you away from doing aveirot. Because many times aveirot are a result of becoming drunk. And as the Gemara says concerning a sotah, that one of the things they say to the sotah is that הרבה יין עושה, that wine does a lot of things. So why don't you admit to your guilt, and we understand what happened. Maybe from becoming drunk it happened. Because becoming drunk leads a person to aveirot. So when a person will make himself a nazir, that means he will have to stay away from wine, and it'll take him away from aveirot. So it comes out that to become a nazir is a maalah. It's a good thing, a positive thing. Nevertheless, a nazir has to bring a קרבן חטאת, because he is called a chotei, he's called a sinner. The fact that this person stayed away from wine is called a cheit, is called a sin. Now the question is, how do these things fit together?

Now the truth is, we understand why a person should really not be allowed to make a neder, not be allowed to become a nazir. Because we know that the reason Hashem created the world was because He wants a דירה לו יתברך בתחתונים. As the Midrash says in Tanchuma in נשא ט״ז and in other places in Midrashim, that Hashem wanted a dwelling place in this world. And it's explained in Chassidishe sefarim that the peshat is Hashem created a world, a physical world, which is known to be as the lowest world. It says in Kabbalah and in Chassidus that there are many, many other spiritual worlds, and the lowest of all So the reason Hashem created this world, which we call תחתונים, the lowest world, and it says in Tanya that this is called the עולם התחתון שאין תחתון למטה הימנו, is the lowest world and there's nothing lower than that. The reason He created it because He wants us, Yidden, to make a dwelling place for Hashem in this low world. That we should bring Godliness into this world, we should make Hashem live here. We should take the inyanim of the world and utilize the inyanim of the world for the sake of Hashem. As we know the Chazal say that כל מה שברא הקדוש ברוך הוא בעולמו לא ברא אלא לכבודו, that everything that's created in this world was only created for His honor, for His glory. As Rashi says in the beginning of חומש, בראשית ברא אלקים, and the beginning Hashem created, so Rashi says it's ב׳ ראשית, that Hashem created the world because of two things which are called ראשית: בשביל ישראל שנקראו ראשית ובשביל התורה שנקראת ראשית. Because of the Yidden which are called ראשית, and because of the Torah which is called ראשית. So the word בראשית is an abbreviation of בשביל, the ב׳ is בשביל and also the ב׳ is two, בשביל ב׳ ראשית, because of the two ראשית. So the whole world was created because of the idden and because of the Torah. Which means, Hashem created the world so we, idden, through the Torah, will be able to bring kedushah into the world, elevate the world to a high מדרגה. And when Mashiach will come, this will actually be seen. We will see how all the תורה ומצות that the idden did throughout all these generations elevated the world, brought the world to a higher level, and the world then will be full of אלוקות, full of Godliness, full of kedushah. As the pasuk says, ומלאה הארץ דעה את ה׳, the world will be full of knowledge of השם, כמים לים מכסים. And this is the purpose why Hashem created the world. So, therefore, when a person makes a נדר to stay away from a certain thing which he was able to eat, or he was able to do, he was allowed to do it, then this person is going against, so to speak, the will of Hashem. Since Hashem created that object, so there are certain things which the Torah said that you're not allowed to do or you're not allowed to eat, so there, the only way we're able to bring kedushah into that object is by staying away from it. For instance, non-kosher food. Why did Hashem create it? So that a non-kosher food should also be elevated to a מדרגה closer to Hashem. But how can we elevate a non-kosher food? So Hashem said clearly, you're not allowed to eat it. So, therefore, the only way you could elevate it is by staying away from it. So that's also a certain form of elevation. The fact that you don't do it, you don't eat it, or when it comes to an act that you're not allowed to do, by staying away, this brings a בירור, so to speak, a purification in that thing. But nevertheless, it doesn't come to the purification that is caused in the thing through a person actually getting involved in it. So the food a person is allowed to eat, Hashem wants the person to eat it and elevate the food to a higher מדרגה. Then he makes, so to speak, this food which is part of עולם הזה התחתון, of this low world, he makes that close to Hashem. Because he eats it l'shem shamayim, with the proper intentions. He eats it so he should have the koach, the strength to serve Hashem, to learn and to daven. And he eats it with a berachah before and a berachah after. And it's kosher food, which is a דין in the Torah. By doing all that, he elevates the food. And the same is with all the actions that a person does. So it comes out that really what Hashem wants is not that we should stay away from ענינים of this world, but the contrary, we should get involved with ענינים in the world and elevate it.

Which is what the Baal Shem Tov explained on a pasuk in פרשת משפטים. There the pasuk says, in קפיטל כ״ג פסוק ה׳, כי תראה חמור שונאך, if you're going to see the donkey of your enemy, רובץ תחת משאו, is laying under his load, וחדלת מעזוב לו, you might think that you're not going to help him, you hold yourself back from helping, so the pasuk says it's wrong, עזוב תעזוב עמו, you have to help him. So the Baal Shem Tov explained the pasuk as follows: he says חמור also comes from the word חומר, which means material. And this refers to everything of this world, including the person's own body, that it's also made of חומר, it's a materialistic thing, a physical thing. So the pasuk says, כי תראה, when you will look into it, then you will see חמור שונאך, that the חומר, the material, is your enemy. Because what Hashem wants of a yid is only kedushah, the material which is physical things is the opposite, so it's the enemy of the true essence of a yid. So what will a yid think? Since the חומר, the material, which includes his body and everything else around it, is his enemy, so וחדלת מעזוב לו, so don't help it, don't get involved with it, try to break your body. So, therefore, stay away from all the physical things, then fast, don't eat, etc., etc. So the pasuk says that that is wrong. עזוב תעזוב עמו, you have to help the חומר and you have to work together with it. Which means Hashem doesn't want a person to stay away from it, Hashem wants a person to work with it. And by working with it, he will elevate, or using the expression of Kabbalah and of Chassidus, he will be mevarer, he will purify these physical things and make them closer to Hashem, and this is what Hashem wants of the person. But on the other hand, it's self-understood that this is only concerning a person who knows that by getting involved in gashmiyus, it will not pull him down and make him lower. This person has the strength to elevate the ענינים גשמיים, which means that when he will get involved in eating, for instance, he has the strength of not eating לשם תאוה, not eating because of his physical desire, but he will be able to eat l'shem Shamayim and elevate the food. But if a person is not in that madreigah, a person is in a lower madreigah, a person still is afraid that if he will get involved in gashmiyus, it might pull him down, he is still not ready to, for it, to have the strength to be able to overcome the ta'avah and only eat l'shem Shamayim, and the same is concerning many other things. So here we say that this person should stay away from gashmiyus. We say נדרים סיג לפרישות, that to make a נדר that you will not get involved in the ענינים גשמיים, that is a fence for perishus, for staying away from gashmiyus. Which means, in essence, that a person who lives up to his madreigah the way he is expected, as the pasuk says in קהלת, קפיטל ז׳ פסוק כ״ט, עשה האלקים את האדם ישר, the way Hashem made the person straight, then the person should not stay away from things which are allowed. And if he does stay away, he is called a chotei, he's called a sinner. Why? Because he could have elevated the food, and he didn't. But if a person is not in that madrega, but as the pasuk continues there, והמה בקשו חשבונות רבים, but they are people who are looking for all kinds of חשבונות, and they are not straight, for people like that we say there is an obligation that he should stay away from all these גשמיותדיקע things. Why? Because they, instead of him elevating them, they might pull him down.

And as we actually see that throughout history, there were these two tekufot. Up to the time of the בית שני, more or less there were no gezeirot and no seyagim. The chachamim that lived throughout all those generations up to the time of the second Beit Hamikdash did not make all these restrictions and all these fences and all these gezeirot and seyagim, etc., etc. It was only from the time of the בית שני, that's when most of the gezeirot by the chachamim were established from that time and on. And the reason is very simple: In the time of the first Beit Hamikdash and before that, the people were in higher madregot. The light of the Shechinah shined within them, and therefore, they didn't need these gezeirot. So whatever the Torah said you're not allowed, so definitely you're not allowed. But to add other restrictions, that wasn't right. Adrabah, those things which are allowed, for instance, things which are allowed to be eaten, a person should eat. And by eating it, he elevates it and makes it closer to Hashem, and this is what Hashem wants. But this was only in the earlier generations, up to the חורבן בית ראשון, to the destruction of the first Beit Hamikdash. As we see that during those generations there was nevuah, etc., etc. In the beginning of the second Beit Hamikdash, the nevuah stopped. As we see that Baruch ben Neriah, who was the מקבל from Yirmiyah, so he was מקבל in the year ש״נ, which was twelve years after the חורבן. But in the בית שני there was no nevuah, as Rashi explains it in detail in יומא דף כ״א עמוד ב׳, that the ruach hakodesh did not rest on the nevi'im from the fourth year of Daryavesh, etc., etc. So in the second Beit Hamikdash, when the kedushah was not so strong, and people were not in such a high madrega, so then it started just the opposite. That's when the chachamim started adding gezeirot and סייגים, more restrictions and more restrictions, because then the people are not in the madreigah that they're able to elevate the different things, and therefore the chachamim restricted to make sure that the people do not fall lower by getting involved in gashmiyut. So just like we see it concerning the different generations, so, too, is it in detail concerning different people. That those people who בכלל are on a higher madreigah, they should not make nedarim. Adrabah, they should utilize the gashmiyut for kedushah. Those people who are on a lower madreigah, they have to make nedarim and they have to stay away from gashmiyut. And the same באמת is within every person himself. At a point when a person feels that he is able to elevate the ענינים גשמיים, that's when he should get involved. But at a point when he feels that the kedushah is not so strong within him, so then, אדרבה, נדרים סיג לפרישות, should stay away. That's when he should become a נזיר, stay away from wine. He is called a חוטא, because he did miss out on the opportunity of elevating the wine, making it closer to Hashem, but nevertheless, he still had to do it, because he's a person who for him, if he would get involved in drinking wine, etc., would pull him down. So he has to stay away from wine, and he has to make this neder. This also explains על דרך הרמז and על דרך הדרוש, why is it that in order to nullify a neder, to be מפר מתיר נדר, you have to be in a higher madreigah. You have to be or a יחיד מומחה, or an individual who is considered an expert, which means a great person, or three הדיוטות, three ordinary people, but because they are a בית דין. So you must have the כח of a בית דין in order to nullify a neder. Based on what we said before, this is understood, because the concept of התרת נדרים, of nullifying a neder, means that you make the person reach a madreigah where he doesn't need a neder. A person who made a neder means that he is in a madreigah that needs the neder, because he cannot get involved in the gashmiyut, it'll pull him down. So when a person is מתיר נדר, that means that he elevates himself to a higher madreigah, that now he doesn't need the neder anymore, and therefore the neder could be nullified. Now he is able to get involved in the gashmiyut and elevate the gashmiyut to a higher madreigah. In order to be מתיר נדר, which means to make the person reach a higher madregah, it could only be done through a person or people who are themselves in a high madregah. Therefore, it has to be done or through a יחיד מומחה who is in a high madregah, or through three ordinary people, but because they are a beit din, there is a special koach of beit din, and this special koach of the beit din is able to elevate the person to a madregah that he should not need the nedarim, and he should be able to be מתיר נדר. And all that we said fits with the peshat that the Mezeritcher Maggid said on the מאמר חז\"ל, that אל יאמר אדם אי אפשי בבשר חזיר, etc. A person should not say that I don't like, let's say, chazir meat, and that's why I'm not eating it, but he should say I do like it, and the reason I'm not eating it is because Hashem told me not to. So the Mezeritcher Maggid says that this is only said concerning tzadikim, but baalei teshuvah, they have to say אי אפשי. A baal teshuvah, since סור מרע, since originally he had a connection to the evil, so he should say I don't want, because if he's going to say I do like chazir, then since he used to eat it, he might fall back and eat it again. So we see that it depends to whom we're talking about: that a tzadik, who is able to overcome the desire of chazir, so then he should say I like it, nevertheless I'm not eating it, and a baal teshuvah, who we're afraid is not able to overcome it, so then he should say I don't like it. And the same thing is here also: a person, a tzadik who is in a higher madregah and he's able to elevate the gashmiyut, he should get involved in it, and he should not make a neder, and if he makes a neder, he is called a choteh. But a person who is not able to elevate, and we're afraid it'll pull him down, for him we say that נדרים סייג לפרישות.