Three Oaths


The Three Oaths is the name for a midrash found in the Babylonian Talmud, and midrash anthologies, that interprets three verses from Song of Solomon as God imposing three oaths upon the world. Two oaths pertain to the Jewish people and a third oath applies to the gentile nations of the world. For their part, Jews were sworn not to "ascend as a wall" to reclaim Land of Israel and not to "rebel against the nations of the world." In turn, the other nations were sworn not to "subjugate the Jews excessively."
Among Orthodox Jews today there are primarily two ways of viewing this midrash. Haredim who are strongly anti-Zionist often view this midrash as legally binding, and therefore the movement to establish the state of Israel and its continued existence would be a violation of Jewish law, whereas Religious Zionists have the view that either the oaths are no longer applicable or that they are indeed binding, but the current movement is not a violation of them. Both buttress their positions by citing historic rabbinic sources in favor of their view.

The midrash and its prooftext

The three oaths are derived from Biblical verses during a sugya, or Talmudic passage, about Zeira's desire to move from Babylonia to the Land of Israel. Zeirva realizes that his teacher, Rav Yosef, considers it a Biblical sin to leave Babylonia for the land of Israel. The sugya begins on Ketubot 110b and continues on 111a. The Gemara quotes Jose bar Hanina:
The Midrash is, in large part, an explanation of three verses in the Song of Songs with the phrase "I adjure you". The midrashic exegesis of these verses is consistent with the traditionalist understanding of the entire book as an allegory for the relationship between God and the Jewish people. The three verses are:
Versions of the oaths also appear in midrash anthologies. Song of Songs Rabbah has two additional oaths for Israel: to not "force the end" and not reveal secrets. Midrash Tanchuma on Deuteronomy has three oaths for Israel: to not reveal the end, not force the end, and not rebel. Ravitzky also sees the idea of the oaths in an earlier, tannaitic midrash, Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael.

Viewpoint of the rishonim

Maimonides

cited the Three Oaths in his famous Epistle to Yemen, written around 1173. In this letter, Maimonides attempted to strengthen the morale of the Yemenite Jews, who were suffering from a decree of forced conversion to Islam as well as a false messianic movement that led many Yemenite Jews away from traditional practice. In the letter he states:

Bahya ben Asher

The 13th-century commentator Rabbeinu Bachya wrote in his commentary on :
... and it is written "And Hezekiah prayed before God". So too we are required to follow in the way of the Patriarchs and to restore ourselves so that we may be graciously accepted and with our fine language and prayer before God, may He be exalted. However, to wage war is not possible, "you have been adjured daughters of Jerusalem, etc." You have been adjured not to engage in war with the nations.

Nachmanides

did not explicitly discuss the Three Oaths, however he did maintain that it is incumbent upon Jews in every generation as a positive commandment to attempt to repossess the Land of Israel:
That we are commanded to take possession of the Land which the Almighty, Blessed Be He, gave to our forefathers, to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Yaakov; and not to abandon it to other nations, or to leave it desolate, as He said to them, "You shall dispossess the inhabitants of the Land and dwell in it, for I have given the Land to you to possess it," and he said, further, "To Inherit the Land which I swore to your forefathers "; behold, we are commanded with the conquest of the land in every generation.

This implies that the Three Oaths are not Halachically binding, as to treat them as binding would effectively nullify a biblical commandment.
Nachmanides continues to say this command applies in every generation, even during exile:
made many other such emphatic statements regarding this positive commandment that we are commanded to possess the Land and settle it. It is therefore an eternal positive command, obligating every single individual even during the time of Exile as is known from the Talmud in many places.

Anti-Zionist responses

In general, the counts of 613 commandments excludes one-time commandments. According to Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, Nachmanides' words "we are commanded with the conquest of the land in every generation" mean only the generations until the era of exile, not all generations. Nevertheless since the commandment applied for multiple generations and not just at one moment, it qualifies to be listed among the 613 commandments.

Other attempts to reconcile Nachmanides with the Three Oaths

understood this particular biblical obligation to be binding on the individual level but not on the collective:
In truth, this commandment is not a commandment which includes the entirety of Israel in the Exile which now exists, but it is a general principle as our Sages stated in the Talmud in Ketubot, that it stems from the Oaths which The Holy One, Blessed be He, made Israel swear not to rush the End, and not to ascend like a wall.

Rabbi Chaim Zimmerman distinguished between settling the land and conquering the land. He said the commandment is realized by settling the land, and conquering is merely a preparation for the core obligation of settlement. The obligation to settle the land does not necessarily violate the Three Oaths. Rabbi Zimmerman adds that the Three Oaths only apply to invading the land from the outside, and once Jews have arrived in the land with the permission of non-Jews, they may then fight for control of the land. He writes:
... the difficulty in the Ramban which says that the mitzva of kibush prevails in our time against the oath, dissolves. The oath, shelo yaalu bechoma means explicitly that we cannot storm eretz-Yisrael from chutz-laaretz. But when the Jews are in eretz-Yisrael, there is surely a hechsher mitzva of kibbush-haaretz. How can the Jews be in eretz-Yisrael without the aliyah "bechoma"? The answer is very simple. If many Jews came to eretz-Yisrael individually, or by permission of the nations, then once they are there, there is a command of kibbush.... There was never an oath upon the people who were in eretz-Yisrael.

Viewpoint of the early Acharonim

Maharal

discussed the Three Oaths in two locations, in his work Netzach Yisrael and in his commentary to Tractate Ketubot. In his work Netzach Yisrael he wrote:


Another explanation of the Midrash's statement that God adjured the Jewish people in a generation of Shmad : that even if they will threaten to kill them with difficult torture, they will not leave nor will they change their behavior in this manner

However, in his commentary to Ketubot the Maharal explains that the Oaths are rather heavenly decrees, necessary to maintain the unnatural state of exile:
שבועות הללו וכו'. פי' כאשר הש"י גזר הגלות על ישראל, והגלות הזה אינו לפי הסדר שראוי להיות בעולם, כי לא תמצא שהאומה יהי' גולה ויהי' יושבים בתוך ארץ אומה אחרת, רק כל אומה ואומה היא תחת רשותה, והש"י גזר הגלות על ישראל והגלות הזה אינו לפי סדר הראוי שיהיה בעולם ולפיכך היה הש"י גוזר קיום על גלותם. ואם לא הייתה הגזירה הזאת על דבר שהוא כנגד הסדר, אין לו קיום כי הסדר גובר עליו. ומפני זה היו ג' שבועות, כלומר ג' גזירות

"These oaths" etc. This refers to when the Lord, blessed be he, decreed exile on Israel; and this exile is not according to the proper order of the world, as you will not find a nation that is exiled and dwells in the land of another nation, but every nation and nation is under its own authority. And the Lord, blessed be he, decreed exile on Israel, and this exile is not according to the proper order of the world, and therefore the Lord, blessed be he, decrees their exile's being. And if not for this decree on that which is against the order, it could not exist for order prevails. And thus were three oaths, that is three decrees

Rabbi Chaim Vital

The 16th Century Kabbalist, Rabbi Chaim Vital expressed the view that the Three Oaths were only binding for the first thousand years of Exile. He wrote:
'I made you swear, daughters of Jerusalem...' this great oath to God was that they should not arouse the Redemption until that love will be desired and with good will, as it is written 'until I desire,' and our Sages already said that the time of this oath is a thousand years, as it is written in the Baraita of Rabbi Yishmael in Pirkei Heichalot..., and similarly in the Zohar II:17a...that it is one day of the Exile of the Community of Israel...

Modern era

Debate on the appropriate understanding of Maimonides

Religious Zionists suggest that in Maimonides' Epistle to Yemen, he explicitly interprets the oaths metaphorically, and not literally. As it states there "Therefore he admonished and adjured them in metaphorical language to desist." Therefore, they maintain, that Maimonides did not consider them to be Halachically binding.
A member of the Haredi community, Rabbi Chaim Walkin points out in his book, Da'at Chaim, that Maimonides discussed the Three Oaths only in the Epistle to Yemen, but not in his Halachic work, the Mishne Torah. R. Walkin postulates that this is because while Maimonides saw these oaths as important, he did not consider them to be legally binding as Halacha, only that they serve as "warnings that these actions would be unsuccessful".
Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum however, noted that Maimonides cites the Three Oaths in Iggeret Teiman, in a way that makes it appear that he is discussing binding Halachah. In using the description "metaphorical", Maimonides is referring to the nature of the text of the Song of Songs, and not to the Three Oaths themselves. The Satmar Rebbe however did not consider the breaking of the oaths a halachic issue, but rather a form of heresy. He stated that "the oath was not given to heretics but to all Jewry; and even if the whole Government were pious like men of old, any attempt to take their freedom prematurely would be to deny the Holy Law and our faith." As for Nachmanides' explicit statement that the commandment applies even during exile, Teitelbaum says this refers to living in Israel as an individual - not conquering, since that would conflict with the Three Oaths. A variant of this approach says that Nachmanides' command to live in Israel even during exile applies only when living in Israel is consistent with exile, that is, when a non-Jewish government rules the land. But living under a Jewish government such as the State of Israel might itself constitute a violation of the oath. Nachmanides felt no need to mention this exception to the commandment because he did not foresee the rise of a Jewish government in the Holy Land before the messiah.
Neturei Karta stress what is said in the mussaf Shemona Esrei of Yom Tov, that because of their sins, the Jewish people went into exile from the Land of Israel. Additionally, they maintain the view – based on the Babylonian Talmud – that any form of forceful recapture of the Land of Israel is a violation of divine will. They believe that the restoration of the Land of Israel to the Jews should happen only with the coming of the Messiah, not by self-determination.
James A. Diamond and Menachem Kellner argue that Maimonides not only left out any mention of the Three Oaths from his code of Halachic law, but that he actually argued that Jewish national independence would come about through human initiative and advocated political activism to try to restore Jewish independence in the Land of Israel. They write that Teitelbaum came up with twisted interpretations of Maimonides' writings to fit his own ideology, for example by claiming that Maimonides' silence on the oaths in his Halachic code was because they were supposedly of such great importance that they did not need to be mentioned. According to Diamond and Kellner, "there is simply no plausible reading of Maimonides’ activist realization of the Jewish return to and settlement of Israel as a necessary stage in bringing about the messianic period that would not run afoul of Teitelbaum's “oaths” argument".