A Stumbling Block Before the Blind

Maimonides rules that every Torah teaching, even a legal ruling, is intended “to set our hearts straight and rectify our character traits.”

In the Laws of Claimants, when one party makes a claim against another party that it misappropriated property, the defendant is required to take an oath in the rabbinical court.

In certain cases, however, the court may establish that the defendant is untrustworthy, and then no such oath is administered.

Yet even if the defendant’s oath is suspect, what could be the benefit of not administering an oath at all, and how does this help “rectify our character traits”?