2,692. The Plaintiff Must Insist

Hilchos Shevuos 9:6

Witnesses aren’t liable for an oath of testimony until they deny having information and take an oath in response to the plaintiff or his representative insisting that they testify. If they take an oath before the plaintiff insists, they aren’t liable for an oath of testimony.

Hilchos Shevuos 9:7

Pursuant to the previous halacha, imagine the following scenario: the witnesses see the plaintiff following them, so they say, “Why are you hounding us? We take an oath that we don’t have any testimony involving you!” In such a case, they’re exempt for a false oath of testimony because the plaintiff didn’t insist that they testify; rather, they took the oath on their own. Similarly, if the defendant imposes an oath on the witnesses that they come testify about the plaintiff and they deny having information, they aren’t liable until the plaintiff imposes the oath. It should go without saying that if someone imposes an oath that they testify that person A (a third party) owes money to person B (another third party) and they deny having information, they’re not liable because the one who imposes the oath isn’t the plaintiff. Similarly, if the witnesses took the oath before acquiring the information necessary for the testimony, they’re not liable for an oath of testimony. This is inferred from Leviticus 5:1: “He heard the voice of an oath and he was a witness.” We see that having testimony came before taking the oath rather than vice versa.