Nedarim 75: Future Nullification

Rav Ashi clears up much of the debate over the last Mishna.  The Mishna was stated precisely in order to distinguish women who are betrothed in an ordinary marriage from those in a levirate betrothal.  

A new Mishna has the rabbis arguing about ratification and nullification of vows in advance.  A husband might go on a trip, for example, and tell his wife that any vows she makes while he is gone will be ratified - or nullified - until he returns.  Is a man permitted to ratify his wife's vows in advance of a trip he is taking?  Is he permitted to nullify her vows in advance?  Some rabbis say that only ratification is allowed, that only nullification is allowed, that both are allowed and that none are allowed.

Numbers 30:14 teaches that every vow a woman takes can be ratified or nullified by her husband.  The rabbis take this to mean that her vows must be eligible to to ratified or nullified.  A vow that has not yet been stated is not eligible for ratification or nullification by a woman's husband.

The Gemara asks whether or not a vow might take effect momentarily before a husband nullifies it.  The rabbis consider some of the guidelines around men's own vows.  For example, a man is permitted to nullify any vows he might make within a future time frame.  However, if during that time frame he recalls that nullification, it does not take effect - he is negating his own vow.  And if he doesn't think of the promise to nullify and he makes vows in the given time frame, those vows are nullified.  So in specific circumstances, vows can be nullified in advance of their existence.

The rabbis speak about a ritual bath and its power to return a person from a state of impurity to a state of purity.  But this process does not render a person immune to future impurity, nor does it render an object impure if that object is swallowed by a person before immersion.  The rabbis begin to connect these principles with their questions about nullification of vows - a woman's vows should not be nullified in advance of their existence as the words of nullification, like a mikvah, do not affect the status of future impurity/vows.