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.

The Purpose of the Mitzvah of Shemitah

Parshat Behar begins with the commandment of shemitah, the requirement to let the Land of Israel lie fallow once every seven years. The Torah states, (Vayikra 25:2)

דבר אל בני ישראל ואמרת אליהם כי תבואו אל הארץ אשר אני נתן לכם ושבתה הארץ שבה ליקוק

Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them: When you come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD.

Rashi, in his commentary to the pasuk writes,

שבת לה' - לשם ה', כשם שנאמר בשבת בראשית

A Sabbath unto the Lord - for the sake of the Lord, just as it says by the Sabbath of Creation

In explaining the words of Rashi, Rabbi Amos Chacham in Daat Mikra explains,

שבת לה’ והכוונה, שבת היא לכבוד ה’, ולאו דווקא לטובת האדם, ולאו דווקא לטובת האדמה.

A Sabbath unto the Lord - and the intent is that the Sabbath be for the Lord's honor, and not necessarily for the benefit of man and not necessarily for the benefit of the Land

.

Accordingly, the Torah tells us that the purpose of observing the shemitah year is a tribute to Hashem and does not serve any other purpose.
However the Rambam, in his Moreh Nevuchim (3:39) argues,

ואמנם כל המצוות אשר סיפרנום בהלכות שמיטה ויובל, מהם לחמלה על בני אדם והרחבה לבני אדם כולם, כמו שאמר "ואכלו אביוני עמך ויתרם תאכל חית השדה" (שמות כ"ג י"א) ושתוסיף הארץ תבואתה ותתחזק בעומדה שמוטה.

Of all the commandments which we have listed pertaining to shemitah and yovel, some show compassion for certain people and broadening the reach of mankind as a whole, as it is written, 'and the poor of your nation shall eat and the leftovers shall be eaten by the animals of the field.' And so that the land should increase its crops and become strengthened from lying fallow.

This opinion of the Rambam is in direct opposition to Rashi's view on shemitah. According to the Rambam the mitzvah is to benefit man in that it provides the poor with food, since crops during the seventh year are hefker, ownerless. In addition it strengthens the land and allows it to produce more crops in subsequent years by letting it rest. Rashi, however disagrees and says that the institution of shemitah has nothing to do with people or land, it is simply a tribute to Hashem conducted once every seven years.

Rambam's History of Religion

The Rambam, in the first chapter of his Hilchot Avodat Kochavim, gives a brief history of religious practice beginning with the creation of the world through the birth of the Jewish people. The Rambam writes that at first man exclusively worshiped God. However during the days of Enosh (Breisht 5:6,9-11) the generation's belief system was corrupted by a mistaken theory. The people reasoned that God had placed the sun, the moon, stars and planets in the heavens because He held them in high regard. The people then reasoned further, that it would be appropriate to worship and praise the stars as a way of honoring Hashem; everyone knew that Hashem was the only God, however they felt that a king is honored when his most loyal servants are honored.
As the years went by false prophets emerged claiming that they were told by God to build temples and offer sacrifices to the sun, moon and stars. They also claimed to have been told to build images and idols of the constellations. As time went on, people began to claim that the idols and the sun and the moon and the stars were actual gods; no longer were they "servants of God", they themselves were gods. As time went on even further, the people forgot the One and true God entirely.
Rambam points out that along the way there were individuals who were able to recognize the existence of God, such as Noach, Shem, Eiver and Metushelach. However, no one was able to reach the heights that Avraham reached. Avraham, writes the Rambam, spent day and night contemplating the existence of a single God. He looked at the sun, moon and stars and believed that there must be a deity controlling them; they could not be without a leader. Finally, at the age of 40, Avraham came to the realization that there was only one God in the world. Shortly thereafter he began to spread the word of God to people of his town. He would engage in religious debates with them and would always emerge victorious. Avraham's attempts to convert people to monotheism caused him to be ridiculed by his fellow townspeople, eventually leading the king to throw him into a fiery furnace, prompting his family's move from Ur Kasdim to Charan.
Avraham successfully spread monotheism wherever he went and eventually passed on his position as God's chief advocate to his son Yitzchak who then passed it on to Yaakov. And the rest is history.