Study Nedarim folio 69B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
תא שמע מפלוגתא דרבי מאיר ורבי יוסי. דתנן: ״הרי זו תמורת עולה תמורת שלמים״ — הרי זו תמורת עולה, דברי רבי מאיר. ורבי יוסי אומר: אם לכך נתכוין מתחלה, הואיל ואי אפשר לקרות שני שמות כאחד — דבריו קיימין.
The Talmud answers: Come and hear a resolution of this dilemma from the dispute between R' Meir and R' Yosei, as we learned in a Mishnah (Temura 25b): If one said about an animal: This is hereby a substitute for a burnt-offering, a substitute for a peace-offering, the halakha is that it becomes a substitute only for a burnt-offering; this is the statement of R' Meir, who holds that one’s initial statement is determinant. And R' Yosei says: If this is what he intended from the outset, that it should be a substitute for both a burnt-offering and a peace-offering, then since it is impossible to give it two names at once and he could not have said burnt-offering and peace-offering simultaneously, his statement is effective, and the animal is a substitute for both of them at once. Similarly, it is possible for him to intend to both ratify and nullify the vow and the vow is nullified, despite the fact that his first statement was to ratify it.
ואפילו רבי מאיר לא קאמר, דלא אמר ״לא תיחול זו אלא אם כן חלה זו״, אבל הכא דאמר ״לא תיחול הקמה אלא אם כן חלה הפרה״ — רבי מאיר נמי מודה דהפרה חלה.
The Talmud adds: And even R' Meir says that the first part of one’s statement is determinant only where he did not state: This will not take effect unless this also takes effect. Here, however, where he expressly said: The ratification of the vow will not take effect unless the nullification takes effect, even R' Meir concedes that the nullification takes effect.
בעי רבה: ״קיים ומופר ליכי״ בבת אחת, מהו? תא שמע דאמר רבה: כל דבר שאינו בזה אחר זה, אפילו בבת אחת אינו.
Rabba further asks: If he said: It is ratified and nullified for you simultaneously, what is the halakha? The Talmud answers: Come and hear that which Rabba himself said: Any two halakhic statuses that one is not able to implement sequentially are not realized even when one attempts to bring them about simultaneously. Since one cannot ratify a vow and subsequently nullify it, one can also not ratify and nullify a vow simultaneously.