Study Nedarim folio 20A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
מתני׳ נדר בחרם, ואמר: לא נדרתי אלא בחרמו של ים. בקרבן, ואמר: לא נדרתי אלא בקרבנות של מלכים.
Mishnah: One who took a vow by associating an item with a dedication [ḥerem], saying: This item is hereby forbidden to me like an item dedicated to the Temple, and then said: I took a vow only with the intention that it would be like a sea net [ḥermo shel yam] that is used to catch fish; or one who took a vow by associating an item with an offering, and then said: I took a vow only with reference to offerings to kings, i.e., a gift for a king, not an offering to God.
״הרי עצמי קרבן״, ואמר: לא נדרתי אלא בעצם שהנחתי לי להיות נודר בו, ״קונם אשתי נהנית לי״, ואמר: לא נדרתי אלא באשתי הראשונה שגירשתי —
Or one who said: I am hereby an offering myself [atzmi], and then said: I took a vow only with reference to a bone [etzem] that I set aside for myself to vow with, as atzmi means both myself and my bone, i.e., he set aside a bone so as to pretend to take a vow upon himself; or one who said: Deriving benefit from me is konam for my wife, and then said: I took a vow only with regard to my first wife whom I divorced, not with regard to my current wife.
על כולן אין נשאלין להם. ואם נשאלו — עונשין אותן ומחמירין עליהן. דברי רבי מאיר.
For all of the above vows, those who took them do not need to request of a halakhic authority to dissolve them, as the speaker interpreted the vows in a manner that caused them not to take effect at all. However, if they requested dissolution, apparently due to their being uncertain of their explanations, the court punishes them and treats them stringently and the vows are not dissolved. This is the statement of R' Meir.