English logo

Friday

י"ט אדר ב’ התשפ"ד

Friday
י"ט אדר ב’ התשפ"ד

חיפוש בארכיון

440. oath

The saying of Chazal that the whole world trembled when Hashem said “You must not use the Name of Hashem your G-d in vain” is well-known. Even concerning swearing in the Beis Din (Jewish Court of Law) when one is obligated to swear Chazal said that not everyone is allowed to swear and that “You must fear Hashem your G-d” in that you should be like Avraham, Yosef and Iyov about whom it says that they were G-d fearing, “And you shall serve Him!” meaning that you must be like Moshe Rabbeinu who was the servant of Hashem, “And to Him you shall cleave!”, and only then “And in His Name you shall swear!”, meaning that if you have all of the above character-traits you then have the right to swear in My Name and if not you do not have the right to swear in My Name even about the truth.

Not only is it forbidden to swear in the Name of Hashem, but even to swear unnecessarily by one’s own soul or life is forbidden. All the more so a false oath is forbidden as he is wounding his own soul. There are places where the people have taught themselves to add to everything that they say that they are swearing by the lives of their fathers, brothers or other people with whom they are speaking, and this is a disgusting habit which shows a lack of respect and an abundance of denigration apart from the prohibition to make oaths in vain. In truth this type of oath is stupid and a complete waste as if they will believe him, they will believe him without the oath and if they will not believe him, even with the oath they will not believe him and what is the point of swearing. The direct punishment of one who is accustomed to swearing is that people stop believing his oaths.

“My brothers and my nation, take this sefer Torah, and with this, and like this learn well, so that you should have it good; listen and enliven your soul, and achieve gladness and joy in this world and the world to come” (From the author’s intro.)