Parshat Eikev: By His Name Swear

By Daniel D. Stuhlman

את ה' אלוקיך תירא אותו תעבד ובו תדבק ובשמו תשבע

The Lord your God shall you revere (fear), and Him shall you serve, and to Him shall you cleave, and by His name swear (or take an oath). (Devarim 10:20)

This pasuk appears twice in Devarim (here and in 6:13).

We are so careful when making an oath, that we have a ceremony (Kol Nidrei) Erev Yom Kippur to nullify oaths. Many workers in the labor movement tried to combine socialist ideals with religious ideals. A group of brush makers “swore on a Torah scroll during a strike that they would not serve as strike breaker.” (From Der bund, no. 6 [May 1905] p. 16 quoted in A Time for Building by Gerald Sorin page.30) In 1897 in Krynki there was a general strike after which the workers swore on tefillin that they would support the strike followed by the singing of a Yiddish revolutionary song, Di Shuve (The Oath). (See Sorin page 31) {1} It is interesting that these workers used a Torah and tefillin for an oath because it is close to using God’s name. They used the Torah as a guarantor that their words would be true.

If we want our words to be accepted we use an outside certification of some kind. To verify our signature we use witnesses or a notary public. To verify our identity we use ID cards issued by the State, our school, or employer. We don’t need to use an oath or swear to our identities. I imagine that in a society without third party guarantees, using God’s name or the proxy of the Torah was a way of proving one’s words were true. The oath takers are claiming that God would exact punishment if the words are false.

In Hilchot Shavuot Maimonides tells us what an oath is and warns us to be careful to take only necessary oaths.

כשם ששבועת שוא ושקר בלא תעשה--כך מצות עשה שיישבע מי שנתחייב שבועה בבית דין בשם, שנאמר "ובשמו תישבע" (דברים ו,יג; דברים י,כ): זו מצות עשה--שהשבועה בשמו הגדול והקדוש, מדרכי העבודה היא, והידור וקידוש גדול הוא, להישבע בשמו.

He has commanded us to swear by His name in affirming or denying a matter, lending gravity and dignity to the declaration. The Torah admonished us to swear by his name. On the one hand the Torah also warned us against taking an oath. This is to show us that just as we are specially forbidden to take an oath so we are specifically admonished to take a necessary oath.

Nahmonides attacks Maimonidies’ statement in his Book of Commandments

The taking of even the necessary oath by His name is no duty and constitutes no positive commandment, but merely a permissive action, dependent on us, with many conditions attached. This text is no command, but merely a permissive statement, not as Maimonides make out.

Questions:

What is the power invoked by swearing with God’s name? Do we need to swear oaths today?

Many of out laws are directly against the practice of idolatry. Does this pasuk tell us anything against idolatry?

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Based on comments by Nehama Leibowits in Studies in Devarim Deuteronomy pp. 106-112.

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{1} This song, which can be found in Wikipedia, written by S. Ansky in 1902, encourages a united struggle to free the worker-slaves in an oath of blood and tears. The only connection here is the name and nature of the song. It has no connection with my arguments in this article.