Resources for Nedarim 77
The גמרא says that one can only be מתיר נדר on Shabbos for a נדר that is לצורך שבת. Even הפרת נדרים are only מותר because you can’t wait for tomorrow. What isn’t so clear is what exactly the issue we are trying to avoid is. The ר"ן gives two possibilities: either the fact that you need a ב"ד or חכם to be מתיר נדר makes it look a doing דין on Shabbos which is אסור. Alternatively, the issue is that you can just wait till tomorrow so why do it on shabbos. That second reason is not so clear but the לבוש understands that its because its a טירחא שלא לצורך. Theפּרי מגדים in או"ח סימן שמ"א במשבצות זהב א says that the שולחן ערוך in יו"ד סימן רכ"ח sounds like the issue is “ממצוא חפצך” but he questions how you can have an איסור of ממצוא חפצך on a non-action. All the examples in סימן ש"וof ממצוא חפצך involve actions. The פּמ"ג suggests that if the reason is like the ר"ן that it looks like דין, then even if it is a צורך מצוה it is possible that חז"ל were מחמיר if it isn’t a צורך שבת. However, if the issue is ממצוא חפצך then any חפצי שמים would be a היתר. Interestingly, the משנה ברורה there in סימן שמ"א does not bring the reason of מיחזי כדין but just the other two reason of טירחא and ממצוא חפצך and says that even if the issue is טירחא שלא לצורך it would מותר for any צורך מצוה.
This brings us to an interesting question asked by רב שלמה זלמן ז"ל in שולחן שלמה ס"ק ב אות ב: our גמרא reminded us that making נדרים is not typically a good thing and the person is called a חוטא. If so, being מתיר נדר would be a מצוה so you should be able to be מתיר all נדרים on Shabbos! He answers that if חז"ל said you can’t be מתיר נדר today then you are an אונס and not considered a חוטא today. He also suggests that if you can be מתיר נדר tomorrow it’s not really a צורך. Based on this he says that if you make a נדר that ends on Shabbos then you can be מתיר it even if it isn’t a צורך שבת.
The גמרא brings a מחלוקת about whether we are פּותחין בחרטה or not. It is interesting that besides having different גירסאות regarding what each one said, the מפרש and the ר"ן seem to learn the words פּותחין בחרטה very differently. The ר"ן in ד"ה ר"ג סובר seems to understand that the מחלוקת of פּותחין בחרטה is whether חרטה is an acceptable form of פּתח or not. If you look back on דף כ"א ע"ב, the ר"ן there in ד"ה אלא explained that פּתח is better than חרטה because פּתח means that you say that had you focused on a certain idea when you made the נדר, then you never would have made the נדר. That is fully עוקר הנדר מעיקרו. However, חרטה means that nothing would have changed your mind at the time, but now if asked you would say you regret having been like that and wish you never would have made the נדר. That’s not as much as an עקירא מעיקרא so it is a מחלוקת if it works. The מפרש in ד"ה ורב נחמן סבר (assuming you have the word "לא" , against the ב"ח’s גירסא) seems to understand that the מחלוקת is whether we offer the person the suggestion that maybe if they had focused on a certain idea at the time or if a bunch of people would have been מפייס him would he have made the נדר orginally? If you have the ב"ח’s גירסא in the מפרש (which takes out the word "לא"), then the מחלוקת seems to be whether you need to be מתחרט מעיקרא or if you can just be מתחרט now.
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