While the Jedi Order has clear and strict rules for its members, the path for every Jedi remains unique. In The Acolyte’s second episode, fans of Star Wars comics may have recognized the term Barash Vow from the scene where the assassin Mae confronts Jedi Master Torbin. But what does it mean?
Individuals who take the Barash Vow remain Jedi, but voluntarily choose to temporarily stop taking action on behalf of the Order. Author Charles Soule, who created the Barash Vow, described Jedi who take it as those “who feel they have done something deeply wrong — particularly a misinterpretation of what they believe the Force wanted them to do — and while they don’t leave the Order, they decide to sit and listen to the Force until they better understand themselves and what it’s saying.”
The Barash Vow was first introduced in the Marvel comic Darth Vader (2017) #2. In the series penned by Soule and set shortly after Order 66, Vader searches a Jedi Archive for the locations of Jedi who took the vow prior to the purge. On the hunt for a kyber crystal from a Jedi he defeated in combat, Vader sees Barash Vow takers as easy prey, as they would be forbidden to use the Force to defend themselves. Vader’s search leads him to the Jedi Master Kirak Infil’a, a warrior now meditating on the river moon Al’doleem. After Vader’s arrival, Infil’a declares his vow complete as the Force has finally revealed a clear path for him to follow: to kill the man who slaughtered his brothers and sisters in the Order.
Hundreds of years earlier in-story, during the High Republic era seen in the books and comics, Barash Silvain, who the vow is named after, debuted in Marvel’s The Blade comic mini-series. After a mission on Gansevor with the Jedi Porter Engle, which led to much bloodshed during a city siege, Barash vows to not act on the Force again until she can hear the Force more clearly. While Barash was not the first Jedi to choose to pause acting on behalf of the Force, her pledge would become known as the Barash Vow.
In The Acolyte episode “Revenge/Justice,” Mae tracks down Jedi Master Torbin in a Jedi outpost on Olega. Floating cross-legged in a deep meditative state, Torbin has not spoken to anyone for over ten years. While it is as yet unclear what led to Torbin taking the Barash Vow, he awakens from his seemingly frozen state when Mae confronts him about his past and offers him a deadly choice. The Barash Vow, as practiced by Torbin, creates an impenetrable barrier around him as he contemplates deeply, a possibly unique side effect of the inner journey he currently undertakes.
A brief moment of reflection for some, the Barash Vow could mean years or decades of solitary meditation for others. While many Jedi were able to find clarity with the Force after a time and return to being an active member of the Order with a clear path in front of them, the events that led other Jedi to take the vow would prove too great to surmount.
