Study Shevuot folio 31B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
אמר להו רב פפא: אי מפקדון גמרי לה רבנן, דכולי עלמא לא פליגי דדון מינה ומינה.
Rav Pappa said to the Rabbis: If the Rabbis derive liability for one who takes a false oath of testimony on his own by means of a verbal analogy from the oath on a deposit, then everyone agrees: Infer from it and derive the details from it, and even the Rabbis would concede that all of the halakhot of the oath of testimony are derived from the oath on a deposit; therefore, one is liable for an oath taken on one’s own even outside the court.
אלא היינו טעמא דרבנן – דמייתו לה בקל וחומר: ומה מפי אחרים חייב, מפי עצמו לא כל שכן?!
Rather, this is the reason that the Rabbis hold that there is no liability for the oath of testimony taken on one’s own outside the court: They derive it by means of an a fortiori inference from the halakhot of the oath of testimony itself, as follows: And if one who was administered an oath by others is liable, when one takes the oath on his own, is he not all the more so liable?
ומדמייתו לה מקל וחומר – דיו לבא מן הדין להיות כנדון: מה מושבע מפי אחרים – בבית דין אין, שלא בבית דין לא; אף מושבע מפי עצמו – בפני בית דין אין, שלא בפני בית דין לא.
And from the fact that they derived the halakha by means of an a fortiori inference, one is bound by the limitations that restrict that derivation: It is sufficient for the conclusion that emerges from an a fortiori inference to be like its source. Therefore, just as one who is administered an oath by others, if the oath is administered in court, yes, he is liable, and if it is not administered in court, no, he is not liable, so too, one who took the oath on his own, before a court, yes, he is liable, and if it is not before a court, no, he is not liable.