The Custom to Perform Hatarat Nedarim Before the Month of Elul

Many congregations in the Syrian community have the custom to perform a congregational Hatarat Nedarim (annulment of vows) in the synagogue on the Mosa’eh Shabbat after Tisha B’Ab, or the Mosa’eh Shabbat preceding Rosh Hodesh Elul. It should be noted, however, that this is not the original custom that was observed in Halab (Aleppo, Syria). The work Derech Eretz, which documents the religious customs of the great community of Aleppo, writes (listen to audio recording for precise citation) that the original custom was to perform the communal Hatarat Nedarim on Ereb Rosh Hodesh Elul, regardless of what day of the week it was. The entire community – men, women and children – would come to the synagogue on that day for the Hatarat Nedarim to absolve any vows that were taken in preparation for the holidays. Later, the custom changed, and the communities began performing the congregational Hatarat Nedarim earlier, on 19 Ab, in the morning. (The Hatarat Nedarim was made again on Ereb Rosh Hashanah and on Ereb Yom Kippur.) At some point the custom changed again, as it was difficult for families to come to the synagogue in the morning, and they began doing the Hatarat Nedarim on the night of 19 Ab, after the Arbit prayer.

The common practice here in the United States, where the Hatarat Nedarim is performed on Mosa’eh Shabbat, began on these shores as a matter of convenience, as people were anyway in the synagogue at the end of Shabbat. This is not how it was done back in Aleppo, and therefore in our synagogue we perform the congregational Hatarat Nedarim on 19 Ab, in accordance with the practice observed by our ancestors in Syria.