Would You Rather Make a Contract or Take a Vow?

David Hume writes that the ability to make and enter into contracts is a hallmark of a free society. The Talmud—says Rabbi Michael Broyde—argues the opposite: We are free precisely when we break contracts. From a religious point of view, it is the vow—not the contract—that is binding. That’s because a vow, in contrast, to a contract, is self-inflicted; …