Swearing in God’s name commits us to serve Him

Ekev

Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25

Isaiah 49:14-51:3

Observant Jews typically avoid taking oaths. If we respect our own word, then other people should have reason to trust us even without our swearing.

We want to conduct even our casual conversation with dignity. However, we view swearing as undertaking a solemn commitment before God, not a casual undertaking at all.

One of the Ten Commandments prohibits us from taking a false oath, or even a true-but-pointless one: "For God will not find innocent whoever lifts up his name for no purpose" (Exodus 20:7, Deut. 5:11).

The Mikhilta gives examples of each: "To swear falsely that this pillar of stone is gold; pointlessly that this pillar of wood is wood" (cited by Rashi on Exodus 20:7).

As Rabbi Ovadiah Sforno explains: "For even if one swears to the truth, God will not find him innocent from the curse of swearing, and certainly when he swears falsely, for it is dishonorable for a person to invoke his name except to establish something as true, which one could otherwise not establish.

"However, in a false oath, in which the oath-taker claims, 'This is as true as the blessed God is true,' he thus denies and profanes his Name" as if he had said, "The blessed God is not true'" (Sforno on Exodus 20:7).

The ancient rabbis found the language of this verse terrifying: "God will not find innocent." Can it mean that for other sins, the possibility of repentance and complete forgiveness remains open, but not for taking up God's name unlawfully? A frightening thought.

When the opportunity to take an oath comes up, a person ought to feel extreme reluctance. Who knows if the circumstance absolutely requires an oath, and if the statement really deserves the name of truth. So, typically, an observant Jew avoids oaths.

Invited to swear in as a witness in an American court, an observant Jew usually takes the option of affirming, rather than swearing, that he or she intends to tell "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."

So it seems perfectly consistent when the Bible observes, "If you do not take oaths at all, you have not sinned" (Deut. 23:23). The Talmud records that, based on this verse, the Babylonian teacher Samuel says, "Anyone who takes an oath, even if he fulfills it, gets called a sinner" (Nedarim 22a).

But in our Torah reading today we find a contradictory demand: "Fear the Lord your God, serve Him, cling to Him, and swear by his name" (Deut 10:20; see also 6:13). At the climax of a list of our duties toward God comes an apparent command to swear by his name. After all the condemnations, now we have, not just permission, but an obligation to swear!

One of the classical commentators suggests an elegant resolution. He understands the verse to say that we never have an obligation to swear, but if we should swear, then we must swear by God alone, not by any thing or person (Ramban cited in Hinnukh 436).

Rashi says that after one has fulfilled the demands of the beginning of the verse, then one may swear by God. Those of us who still have progress to make in fearing, serving, clinging to God have not yet reached the point at which we may take an oath by God.

So for Rashi, there may indeed exist a positive commandment to swear, but only for select individuals.

The talmudic master Rav, as cited by Rav Gidal, thought that one form of oath fulfilled the commandment, "Swear by his name": One should swear to fulfill a commandment (Temurah 3b), as the psalmist recounts of himself, "I have sworn, and I will fulfill, to do the statutes of your righteousness" (Psalms 119:106).

Sometimes, even though we already stand under the obligation to fulfill the commandments, making a personal oath gives us just a little more determination, which we may desperately need.

We already stand obligated to observe the Torah. We have the name of the "People of God," so that we already have the power by our behavior to profane God's name, or to sanctify the name. We do not have the power to escape from that role. Rav believes that, we do not misuse our ability to swear if we take an oath to help us fulfill our role. '