Shevuot

For this reason Scripture wrote testimony near the oath of utterance and near [the laws of] uncleanness in connection with the Temple and the holy food thereof: for in all of them it is said, and it be hidden; and here1 it is not said, and it be hidden; in order to make him liable for wilful as for unwitting transgression.2 MISHNAH. [IF A MAN SAID,] ‘I ADJURE YOU THAT YOU COME AND BEAR TESTIMONY FOR ME THAT SO-AND-SO PROMISED TO GIVE ME TWO HUNDRED ZUZ, AND DID NOT GIVE ME’, THEY ARE EXEMPT, FOR THEY ARE LIABLE ONLY FOR A MONEY CLAIM AS [IN THE CASE OF] DEPOSIT.3 ‘I ADJURE YOU THAT, WHEN YOU KNOW ANY TESTIMONY FOR ME, YOU SHOULD COME AND BEAR TESTIMONY FOR ME,’ THEY ARE EXEMPT, BECAUSE THE OATH PRECEDED THE TESTIMONY.4 [IF] HE STOOD IN THE SYNAGOGUE AND SAID, ‘I ADJURE YOU THAT IF YOU KNOW ANY TESTIMONY FOR ME YOU SHOULD COME AND BEAR TESTIMONY FOR ME,’ THEY ARE EXEMPT5 UNLESS HE DIRECTS HIMSELF TO THEM.6 HE SAID TO TWO [PERSONS]. ‘I ADJURE YOU, SO-AND-SO AND SO-AND-SO, THAT IF YOU KNOW ANY TESTIMONY FOR ME YOU SHOULD COME AND BEAR TESTIMONY FOR ME,’ [AND THEY REPLIED,] ‘WE SWEAR WE KNOW NO TESTIMONY FOR YOU;’ AND THEY DID KNOW TESTIMONY FOR HIM, [BUT IT WAS EVIDENCE OF] ‘ONE WITNESS FROM THE MOUTH OF ANOTHER WITNESS;’7 OR IF ONE OF THEM WAS A RELATIVE OR [OTHERWISE] INELIGIBLE [AS A WITNESS], THEY ARE EXEMPT.8 IF HE SENT BY THE HAND OF HIS SERVANT;9 OR IF THE DEFENDANT SAID TO THEM, ‘I ADJURE YOU THAT IF YOU KNOW ANY TESTIMONY FOR HIM YOU SHOULD COME AND BEAR TESTIMONY FOR HIM;’ THEY ARE EXEMPT, [BEING LIABLE ONLY] WHEN THEY HEAR [THE ADJURATION] FROM THE MOUTH OF THE CLAIMANT. GEMARA. Our Rabbis taught; [If a man says,] ‘I adjure you that you come and bear testimony for me that So-and-So promised to give me two hundred zuz, and did not give me’; I might think they should be liable, therefore it is said: [If any one] sin,10 [if any one] sin,11 for analogy; here12 it is said; ‘[if any one] Sin’, and there13 it is said: ‘[if any one] sin’; just as there it deals with a claim of money which is due to him, so here it deals with a claim of money which is due to him. ‘I ADJURE YOU THAT WHEN YOU KNOW ANY TESTIMONY FOR ME, etc.’ Our Sages taught: ‘I adjure you that when you know’ any testimony for me you should come and bear testimony for me’: I might think they should be liable, therefore it is said; and heard the voice of adjuration, he being a witness, whether he hath seen or known14 — where the testimony precedes the oath, and not where the oath precedes the testimony. HE STOOD IN THE SYNAGOGUE AND SAID; ‘I ADJURE YOU, etc.’ Samuel said: Even if his witnesses are among them [they are exempt]. This is obvious!15 — It is not necessary [for him to tell us this except] where he stands next to them; you might have thought it is as though he said it to them [specifically], therefore he teaches us [that it is not so]. It was also taught likewise: If he saw a company of men standing, and his witnesses were among them, and he said to them, ‘I adjure you that if you know any testimony for me you should come and bear testimony for me;’ I might think they should be liable, therefore it is said, he being a witness16 — and here he did not single out his witnesses. I might think that even if he said, ‘All who stand here [I adjure’, they are exempt], therefore it is said, ‘he being a witness’; and here he did single out his witnesses. HE SAID TO TWO [PERSONS]: ‘I ADJURE YOU, etc.’ Our Sages taught: If he said to two [persons]. ‘I adjure you, So-and-So and So-and-So, that if you know any testimony for me you should come and bear testimony for me’; and they knew testimony for him, but it was evidence of ‘one witness from the mouth of another witness’, or if one of them was a relative or [otherwise] ineligible [as a witness]; I might think they should be liable, therefore it is said, if he do not tell it, then he shall bear his iniquity17 — with those who are eligible to tell, the verse deals. IF HE SENT BY THE HAND OF HIS SERVANT, etc. Our Sages taught: If he sent by the hand of his servant; or if the defendant said to them, ‘I adjure you that if you know any testimony for him you should come and bear testimony for him;’ I might think they should be liable, therefore it is said, if he do not tell it, then he shall bear his iniquity. How is the deduction made? — R. Eleazar said: It is written: if he tell it not,18 [implying] if to him19 he tell it not, then he shall bear his iniquity; but if to another he tell it not, he is exempt. MISHNAH. [IF HE SAID.] ‘I ADJURE YOU’; ‘I COMMAND YOU’; ‘I BIND YOU’; THEY ARE LIABLE.20 ‘BY HEAVEN AND EARTH!’ THEY ARE EXEMPT. ‘BY ALEF DALETH’;21 ‘BY YOD HE’;22 ‘BY SHADDAI’;23 ‘BY ZEBAOTH’;24 ‘BY THE MERCIFUL AND GRACIOUS ONE’; ‘BY THE LONG SUFFERING ONE’; ‘BY THE ONE ABOUNDING IN KINDNESS’; OR BY ANY OF THE SUBSTITUTES [FOR THE NAME]: THEY ARE LIABLE. HE WHO BLASPHEMES25 BY ANY OF THEM IS LIABLE:26 THIS IS THE OPINION OF R. MEIR; BUT THE SAGES EXEMPT HIM.27 HE WHO CURSES HIS FATHER OR MOTHER BY ANY OF THEM IS LIABLE;28 THIS IS THE OPINION OF R. MEIR; BUT THE SAGES EXEMPT HIM. HE WHO CURSES HIMSELF OR HIS NEIGHBOUR BY ANY OF THEM TRANSGRESSES A NEGATIVE PRECEPT.29 [IF HE SAID,] ‘THE LORD30 SMITE YOU’; OR ‘GOD SMITE YOU’;31 THESE ARE THE CURSES WRITTEN IN THE TORAH.32 ‘MAY [THE LORD] NOT SMITE YOU’; OR ‘MAY HE BLESS YOU’; OR ‘MAY HE DO GOOD UNTO YOU [IF YOU BEAR TESTIMONY FOR ME]’: R. MEIR MAKES [THEM] LIABLE,33 BUT THE SAGES EXEMPT [THEM]. GEMARA. ‘I adjure you:’ what does he mean? Rab Judah said; Thus he means: ‘I adjure you by the oath stated in the Torah’; ‘I command you by the command stated in the Torah;’ ‘I bind you by the bond stated in the Torah’.34 Abaye said to him: But then what of R. Hiyya who taught; ‘I chain you’;35 they are liable. Is ‘chain’ then mentioned in Scripture? — Well, said Abaye. Thus he means: ‘I adjure you by oath’; ‘I command you by oath’, ‘I bind you by oath’; ‘I chain you by oath’.36 ‘BY ALEF DALETH’; ‘BY YOD HE, BY SHADDAI’; ‘BY ZEBAOTH’; ‘BY THE MERCIFUL AND GRACIOUS ONE’; ‘BY THE LONG SUFFERING ONE’; ‘BY THE ONE ABOUNDING IN KINDNESS’. Shall we say that Merciful and Gracious are Names?37 This is contradicted [from the following]: There are Names which may be erased;38 and there are Names which may not be erased. These are the Names which may not be erased, such as: ‘El’,39 ‘Eloha’,40 ‘Elohim’, ‘your God’, I am that I am,41 ‘Alef Daleth’, ‘Yod He’, ‘Shaddai’, ‘Zebaoth’ — these may not be erased; but the Great, the Mighty, the Revered, the Majestic, the Strong, the Powerful, the Potent, the Merciful and Gracious, the Long Suffering, the One Abounding in Kindness these may be erased!42 Abaye said: Our Mishnah means: ‘[I adjure you] by Him who is Gracious’; expressly stated (by the omission of okgbu) that in the case of testimony he is liable also for wilful transgression. money, he would not have to pay, for he could say that he had changed his mind. others; they could not, in any case, offer that as testimony. also exempt, because as soon as one of the original three is found to be ineligible, the testimony of the other two is inadmissible; v. Tosaf. Almighty, Hosts. I.e., having heard some one reading the curses in Deut. XXVIII, he says, ‘Thus may God smite you if you do not come to testify for me.’]