Sunday 17 December 2017

Shevuot 19: Two or Four Types of Oaths Regarding Eating

A very brief look at today's daf:

The rabbis wonder what should be done when a person enters the Temple forgetting his state of ritual purity and forgetting that he is walking in a holy place.  Should he not be liable for one transgression but exempt for the other?  What happens to him while in the area of the Temple is important, too.  He might be sprinkled in one place and then he might consume consecrated food in another.  Depending on how the rabbis interpret their past conversation about liability, they can argue that numerous possibilities are valid.

A new perek is introduced beginning with a new Mishna.  It teaches that there are two primary kinds of oaths but four types overall.  The two primary types are "I swear that I will eat" and "I swear that I will not eat".  The secondary types are "I swear that I ate" and "I swear that I did not eat".  If one swears that they will not eat but then eats any amount, one is liable.

Rabbi Akiva says that one never brings an offering for speaking, for the offering is for eating when one made an oath to not eat.  If he eats the offering, he has transgressed again.

The German notes that a translation might read as, "I will eat".  Alternately, if one said "I swear that I will not eat your food" or "I swear on your food" or "I do not swear that I will not eat", one is forbidden to eat.

It will be interesting to see whether or not this line of thought moves toward the fast of Yom Kippur.  In an earlier daf, the rabbis spoke of chewing on small items during the fast of Yom Kippur.  Would that be forbidden or require an offering if one did not know until after the chewing that this act was forbidden?  Or is it not forbidden because of the size of the item and the fact that it is not consumed fully?

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