Positive Mitzvah Seven

Taking Oaths In The Name of G-d

Devarim 6:13 Hashem, your G-d, shall you fear, Him shall you serve, to Him shall you cleave, and in His Name shall you swear.

Devarim 10:20 Hashem, your G-d, shall you fear, Him shall you serve, to Him shall you cleave, and in His Name shall you swear.

By this injunction we are commanded to swear only by His Name, Baruch Hu, whenever we are required to confirm or deny something on oath, because by so doing we exalt, honor and magnify Him.

In explanation the Sages say: "The Torah says 'By His name shall you swear,' and again, 'You shall not take the Name of Hashem your G-d in vain.' (Shemot 20:7; Devarim 10:20, Sifre) Just as we are forbidden to take an oath for which there is no necessity, and this is a Negative Mitzvah,1 so we are commanded to take an oath when necessary, and this is a Positive Mitzvah.

In a Beit Din, a Jew may be required to take an oath confirming that he is telling the truth. When taking an oath, he is commanded to swear by the name of Hashem. He will be using Hashem's holy Name to convince the court of his honesty. One who fears and serves G-d has a right to swear, for his piety will assure that he will do so truthfully (Rashi)

It is for this reason that it is not permissible to swear by any created object, such as the angels or the stars, save only where the oath is elliptical: as, for instance, where one swears by the truth of the sun, meaning 'by the truth of the G-d of the sun'. It is in this manner that our nation swears by the name of Moshe our Teacher - honored be his name - as though he who swears were to say 'by the G-d of Moshe', or 'by Him who sent Moshe'. But whenever the one who swears does not mean it so, but swears by a created object, in the belief that that object has in itself such truth that one can swear by it, he transgresses by placing some other object on an equal footing with the Name of Heaven: and on this Tradition says: "He who places the Name of Heaven on an equal footing with some other object shall be uprooted from the world." (Sukkot 45b)

1. See Negative Mitzvah 62

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