Compelling a debtor to swear to his poverty, Part 3 of 3

Hi,

[continued from yesterday's post]

Preface: In order to encourage payment of debts, the sages enacted a rule permitting a creditor to demand that a debtor in default swear that he does not have the means to pay his debt. Regarding this, Rambam comments:

"The general principle is this: As long as a judge does one of these things, and his intent is only to pursue righteousness, which we have been instructed to pursue, and not to trespass the law [in abuse of] one of the litigants, he is licensed to do it and he will be rewarded – so long as his deeds are for the sake of heaven."

(Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Lender and Borrower 2:4)

Have a good day,
Mordechai

Compelling a debtor to swear to his poverty, Part 2

Hi,

[continued from yesterday's post]

Preface: In order to encourage payment of debts, the sages enacted a rule permitting a creditor to demand that a debtor in default swear that he does not have the means to pay his debt. Regarding this, Rambam comments:

"And so I also say that if a person is established as a cunning person, and his commercial activities are corrupt, and he has means, possessing funds, and he claims that he has nothing and he runs to take this oath, then it is not appropriate to make him swear.

"Rather, if the judge is able to compel him to pay his creditor, or to excommunicate him until he pays, this is what he should do, since this person has means. Paying a creditor is a mitzvah.

[to be continued]

(Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Lender and Borrower 2:4)

Have a great day,

Mordechai

Compelling a debtor to swear to his poverty, Part 1

Hi,

Preface: In order to encourage payment of debts, the sages enacted a rule permitting a creditor to demand that a debtor in default swear that he does not have the means to pay his debt. Regarding this, Rambam comments:

"Regarding one who is established as indigent and a proper person, acting in sincerity, and this is known clearly to the judge and to most people, and whose creditor then comes to demand that he take this oath. If it is established that the plaintiff is not going to be satisfied with the borrower's indigence, but will wish to pain him with this oath only to make him suffer and to humiliate him in public as a form of vengeance, or in order to goad him to borrow from a non-Jew or take his wife's assets to pay the debt and save himself from this oath, then it appears to me that a Gd-revering judge may not compel him to swear this oath. 

"If the plaintiff does compel this, he violates a biblical prohibition, 'You shall not be as a claimant.' Further, the judge should rebuke the plaintiff and chase him away, for he is nursing a grudge and acting on his personal whim.

"This oath was enacted only because of cunning people... This person is established as indigent, and not as someone cunning, and so one may not compel him to swear."

[to be continued]

(Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Lender and Borrower 2:4)

Have a great day,

Mordechai

Taking vows

Hi,

[This passage follows a discussion of the evils of taking vows, arguing that a Jew is not supposed to take vows.]

"Does the Torah not say, 'And Yaakov vowed,' and 'That which I have vowed, I will pay' [in apparent approval]?

"One could answer that in times of trouble this is permitted, as is taught in Bereishit Rabbah, "The Torah says: 'And Yaakov made a vow, to say' – 'To say' means to say to his descendants that they should also vow in times of need."

(Tosafot, Chullin 2b)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Repealing an oath

Hi,

“A certain local official was bad to the Jews in his city, and they plotted to flee. He imprisoned them, and forced them to swear that they would not flee.

“Do not propose that they ritually repeal their vow, for that would desecrate Gd’s Name. Further, he would no longer trust Jews for their oaths, and he might imprison one of them and not release him even with an oath.

“Rather, they should work with the king or some great official to enable the transplantation of the community against this official’s wishes.”

(R' Yehudah haChasid, Sefer Chasidim 423)

Have a great day,
Mordechai