(ב) הַמַּתְפִּיס בִּצְדָקָה חַיָּב כִּשְׁאָר הַנְּדָרִים. כֵּיצַד. אָמַר הֲרֵי סֶלַע זוֹ כְּזוֹ הֲרֵי זוֹ צְדָקָה. הַמַּפְרִישׁ סֶלַע וְאָמַר הֲרֵי זוֹ צְדָקָה וְלָקַח סֶלַע שְׁנִיָּה וְאָמַר וְזוֹ הֲרֵי שְׁנִיָּה צְדָקָה. וְאַף עַל פִּי שֶׁלֹּא פֵּרֵשׁ:
(2) One who connects pledges of tzedakah is as obligated with one vow as with another. How so? [For example] if he said, "This selah is like that selah” , then that one is for tzedakah. If he sets aside a selah and said, "This is for tzedakah," and then he took out a second selah and said, "And this one”, the second one becomes sanctified for tzedakah even though he did not say outright his intentions.
To appreciate this Halacha, some basic foreknowledge is in order. The nature of a vow, as the Torah defines it, is that it allows for a level of sanctity to ‘grab’ onto an object. This sanctity, conferred to the object by the words that formulated the oath, is considered, conceptually, to manifest within the actual item that is the subject of the vow. This is as opposed to looking at a vow as something that merely binds one’s actions; here, the object itself is the space and entity on which the sanctity “lands”.
Because vows are unique in the sense that their sanctity is entirely manmade - through the spoken word - the particulars of the laws of vows is very much linked to the way in which we use of language and what we intend when we speak.
Therefore, writes Rambam, one does not need to specifically articulate that a given coin is set aside for Tzedakah. Rather, the moment we can interpret one’s language from context, this alone is enough to qualify the utterance as an oath and allows for the sanctity of the Tzedakah-vow to grab hold of the coin.
As such, Rambam describes two examples of contextual interpretation of language. The first is where the coin of Tzedakah is in front of him and he exclaims that the second coin should be like the first. We assume what he means is that the second should be similar in terms of being sanctified for Tzedakah. The second example relies not on the context of object and environment, but rather on the context of his sentences. In this example he is busy talking about commiting coins to Tzedakah, and on one of the coins he simply says “and this one”. We assume from the context of the conversation itself that the only thing he could have meant was to sanction this coin for Tzedakah as well.
With this Halacha, Rambam is diving straight into the particulars of the laws of vows seemingly to emphasize the likeness of Tzedakah to vows. As we look at the next few Halachot, we will understand why Rambam is shifting so dramatically to immediately discuss the intricate and complex assumptions and particulars of the laws of vows and their appliation to Tzedakah.