Keeping Your Word

The Torah asks us to keep our word; it says we should not be profane our word. We are familiar with “keeping” our word, committing to what we have said. But profanity and holiness? What holiness is in our words? Is our words the Beis Hamikdash?

Perhaps the usage of “holiness” here does not refer to the type of holiness found in the Beis HaMikdash. Our usual chatter is not hallowed. Rather it means that the words we say are not mere talk; they are halachikly meaningful. Much as sh’chita is not mere killing an animal, rather it has halachik meaning which permits eating the animal, so too our words are binding halachikly. Saying we will do something creates a force that binds us to keep those words. Breaking our word is treating our utterance as if it were not binding – as if it were profane, not meaningful in a halachik sense.

So besides our responsibility to keep to our word because we accept responsibility for it, we must also keep our word just because we said it, and it binds us.