Tuesday, December 10, 2024
Elder of Ziyon
Adam Schiff was sworn into office yesterday. He chose to place his hand on a 15th century printing of a volume of Maimonides' legal opus Mishneh Torah that is owned by the Library of Congress.
This sparked an interesting discussion on X.
It is traditional for officials to swear on Bibles. Lahav Harkov half-jokingly asked whether Schiff thought that the Mishneh Torah is a Torah, which it isn't.
Forgetting Schiff's political positions, which certainly color people's responses, there are a couple of interesting points made.
One is that under US law, people can choose to swear in using pretty much anything they want. People have used a Dr. Seuss book, a rare Superman comic book, and the Autobiography of Malcolm X, or even nothing. So from that perspective, there is nothing wrong with swearing on a book of law, which seems appropriate given that the wording he is swearing is to support and defend the Constitution.
One is that under US law, people can choose to swear in using pretty much anything they want. People have used a Dr. Seuss book, a rare Superman comic book, and the Autobiography of Malcolm X, or even nothing. So from that perspective, there is nothing wrong with swearing on a book of law, which seems appropriate given that the wording he is swearing is to support and defend the Constitution.
The other issue is whether Jewish law allows such an oath to begin with. Traditionally, religious Jews avoid swearing given the seriousness of such a move under Jewish law; instead we will say we "affirm" when going to court or the like.
In this case he did swear, so the question is whether a Jew can swear on a Mishneh Torah?
Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin notes that "Ramah in Choshen Mishpat 87:15 cites opinion that allows for oaths to be administered on any Jewish Sefer that includes the name of God."
But that brings up the next question: does that mean the Tetragrammaton, the four letter Name that should not be pronounced, or one of the other Names that are more commonly used that do not have the same degree of sanctity?
As far as I can tell, looking at old editions of Mishneh Torah online, the Rambam (Maimonides) does not use the Tetragrammaton, instead abbreviating it with the letter "heh" or the "double yud." (He alludes to the Name in the acrostic introducing the work.)
So I am not sure that Mishneh Torah, while certainly holy, qualifies as a a book that contains the name of God for the purposes of taking an oath.
Finally, I expect it will take about five minutes before antisemites use this ceremony to "prove" that Schiff only swore to uphold Talmudic Jewish law, not the Constitution.
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