My father, of blessed memory, was a very good parent. (I told him that once when I was a teenager. He was really touched. I was surprised he didn't just know that. Now that I am a parent, I know why.) One thing that made him a good parent was that he never made empty threats. He never, ever, even once threatened to kill any of us, no matter how egregious our sin. He would however, in a very calm and measured tone (making it all the more terrifying) threaten to break our arm. I used to think to myself, "Well... he does have medical insurance, and he looks pretty serious." So I would desist. The Torah gives us two ways to create our own restrictions on ourselves. One can create an new Torah prohibition by making either a נֶדֶר/vow or a שְׁבוּעָה/oath. They are very similar, but there are some technical differences. The one outstanding difference is that it is a Torah prohibition to make and empty/meaningless שְׁבוּעָה, whereas taking an empty/meaningless נֶדֶר i...
This is a paraphrase of the pasuk in t'hillim 84:7 -- "mei'chayil el chayil" -- which means "from strength to strength". In this case, it is my thoughts and ideas to those who are strong enough to be interested :)