Oath More Judaico

{{Short description|Special oath imposed upon medieval Jews}} [[File:Erfurter Judeneid.JPG|thumb|Facsimile of the [[Erfurt]] version of the Jewish oath, displayed in the [[Old Synagogue (Erfurt)|Old Synagogue]].]] The '''Oath ''More Judaico''''' or '''Jewish Oath''' was a special form of [[oath]], rooted in [[antisemitism]] and accompanied by certain ceremonies and often intentionally humiliating, painful or dangerous, that Jews were required to take in [[Europe]]an [[court]]s of [[law]] until the beginning of the 20th century. ''More Judaico'' is [[Latin]] for "according to Jewish [[Mores|custom]]."

The question of the trustworthiness of the Jewish oath was intimately connected with the meaning that [[Christians|Christian]] authorities assigned to the ''[[Kol Nidre]]'' prayer, recited by Jews on [[Yom Kippur]], and the whole of the legislation regarding the oath was characteristic of the [[Jews in the Middle Ages|attitude of medieval states toward their Jewish subjects]]. The [[Separation of church and state#History|identification of Church and State]] seemed to render it necessary to have a different formula for those outside the state church. A similar version of the oath existed in Medieval Islamic countries such as [[Mamluk Egypt]].

==Historical development== The [[Disabilities (Jewish)|disability]] imposed on a [[Jew]] engaged in legal contention with a [[Christians|Christian]] dates back to [[Byzantine emperor]] [[Justinian I]], who declared that neither Jews nor [[heresy|heretics]] should be admitted as [[witness]]es against Christians; [[Secularism|secular]] courts, however, did not recognize this disability. Thus, in the safe conducts issued by the [[Carolingian]] kings in the 9th century, Jews and Christians were treated as equals, and consequently the [[testimony]] of the former, whether given under [[oath]] or not, was as admissible as the latter. This was distinctly stated in the [[charter]] granted by [[Holy Roman Emperor]] [[Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor|Henry IV]] to the Jews of [[Speyer]] in 1090. The law of [[Duke]] [[Frederick II of Austria]] (1244), which served as a model for much other [[legislation]] on the Jews, merely required a Jew to [[oath|swear]] "super Rodal" (by the [[Torah]]). Similar laws existed in [[England]], [[Portugal]], and [[Kingdom of Hungary|Hungary]]; Hungary waived the requirement to swear on the [[Torah]] in trivial cases.{{cn|date=December 2020}}

There were, however, some older laws that prescribed certain practices intended to mock Jews in court. These examples illustrated the kinds of humiliating rituals that accompanied the taking of the oath:{{cn|date=December 2020}} *[[Byzantine Empire]], 10th century: the Jew would wear a [[Crown of thorns|girdle of thorns]] around his loins, stand in water, and swear by "Barase Baraa" ([[Book of Genesis|Bereshit Bara]]), so that if he spoke untruth, he would be swallowed by the earth just like [[Dathan]] and [[Abiram]] in [[Book_of_Numbers#Chapter_15-17|Numbers 16:1–27]]. *[[Arles]] (c. 1150): a wreath of thorns would be hung on the swearer's neck, others would grovel at his knees, and a thorn branch five [[ell]]s in length would be pulled "between his loins" while he swore and called down upon himself all the [[Curse#Curses in the Bible|curses]] of the Torah. *[[Swabia]] (13th century): the Jew would stand on the hide of a [[Unclean animals|sow]] or a [[Lamb of God|bloody lamb]]. *[[Mamluk Sultanate]], 13th/14th century: the Jew would swear that was purposefully worded to be degrading and ludicrous and contained a detailed, self-imposed curse in which he renounced all that he held sacred should his witness prove false.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stillman |first1=Norman A. |title=The Jews of Arab lands : a history and source book |date=1979 |publisher=Philadelphia : Jewish Publication Society of America |isbn=978-0-8276-0116-1 |pages=72-73 |url=https://archive.org/details/jewsofarablands00stil/mode/2up |access-date=12 October 2025}}</ref> *[[Silesia]] (1422): the Jew would stand on a three-legged stool and have to pay a [[Fine (penalty)|fine]] each time he fell, finally losing his [[legal case|case]] if he fell four times. *[[Dortmund]]: the Jew would be fined each time he halted in repeating the oath. *[[Vrbové|Verbo]], Hungary (1517): the Jew would stand barefooted and swear with his face turned to the east, holding the [[Pentateuch]] in his hand. *[[Breslau]] (c. 1455): the Jew would stand [[Yarmulke#Jewish law|bareheaded]] and pronounce the name of [[Yahweh]].

==An example: Frankfurt oath== [[File:Oathmorejudaico.jpg|right|thumb|300px|A 17th century drawing of a German Jew taking a Jewish oath.]] The following formula, originally in Middle High German, was used in Frankfurt on the Main about 1392:<ref name="Fordham">{{cite web |author1=Paul Halsall |title=An Oath Taken by Jews Frankfort on the Main, about 1392 CE |url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/1392-jews-frankfort.html |website=Jewish History Sourcebook |publisher=Fordham University | date= 1996-01-26 }}</ref> :''The Jew shall stand on a sow's skin and the five books of Master Moses shall lie before him, and his right hand up to the wrist shall lie on the book and he shall repeat after him who administers the oath of the Jews:''

:''Regarding such property of which the man accuses you, you know nothing of it, nor do you have it. You never had it in your possession, you do not have it in any of your chests, you have not buried it in the earth, nor locked it with locks, so help you God who created heaven and earth, valley and hill, woods, trees, and grass, and so help you the law which God himself created and wrote with His own hand and gave Moses on Sinai's mount. And so help you the five books of Moses that you may nevermore enjoy a bite without soiling yourself all over as did the King of Babylon.''

:''And may that sulphur and pitch flow down upon your neck that flowed over Sodom and Gomorrah, and the same pitch that flowed over Babylon flow over you, but two hundred times more, and may the earth envelop and swallow you up as it did Dathan and Abiram. And may your dust never join other dust, and your earth never join other earth in the bosom of Master Abraham if what you say is not true and right.'' [This refers either to a decent burial or to resurrection.] ''And so help you Adonai, you have sworn the truth.''

:''If not, may you become as leprous as Naaman and Gehazi, and may the calamity strike you that the Israelite people escaped as they journeyed forth from Egypt's land. And may a bleeding and a flowing come forth from you and never cease, as your people wished upon themselves when they condemned God, Jesus Christ, among themselves, and tortured Him and said: {{bibleref|Matthew|27:25}} "His blood be upon us and our children." It is true, so help you God who appeared to Moses in a burning bush which yet remained unconsumed. It is true by the oath that you have sworn, by the soul which you bring on the Day of Judgment before the Court, [before the God of] Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is true, so help you God and the oath you have sworn. [Amen].''{{cn|date=December 2020}}

==The oath as a Jewish disability== A decidedly aggressive change took place when, in 1555, the [[Germany|German]] imperial court procedure (''Reichskammergerichtsordnung'') prescribed a form of oath that, with some alterations, formed a model to subsequent legislation. The terms in which the swearer called down upon himself invoked all the curses of [[Leviticus]] and [[Deuteronomy]], the [[ten plagues]] of [[Egypt]], the [[leprosy]] of [[Naaman]] and [[Gehazi]] (see 2 [[Books of Kings|Kings]] 5), the fate of Dathan and Abiram, etc.{{cn|date=December 2020}}

According to a recount in his "Gesammelte Schriften", the German-Jewish philosopher [[Moses Mendelssohn]] of the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] persuaded the [[Prussia]]n government to moderate the terms of the oath during the 18th century. The small German states gradually surrendered the most objectionable features of the oath: [[Electorate of Hesse|Hesse-Kassel]] (or Hesse-Cassel), in 1828; [[Grand Duchy of Oldenburg|Oldenburg]], 1829; [[Württemberg]], 1832; [[Saxony]], 1839 (on which occasion [[Zecharias Frankel]] published his famous "''Die Eidesleistung''"); [[Schaumburg-Lippe]] and [[Anhalt]]-[[Bernburg]], 1842; and [[Hesse-Homburg]], 1865. {{cn|date=December 2020}}

Prussia retained the oppressive formula until 15 March 1869; the [[Netherlands]] modified the oath in 1818, and [[Russia]] in 1838 and 1860. The Jewish [[advocate]] [[Isaac Adolphe Crémieux]] won great fame by effecting the abolition of the oath through a case brought before the court of [[Nîmes]] in 1827. [[Lazard Isidor]], as [[rabbi]] of [[Pfalzburg]], refused in 1839 to open the [[synagogue]] for such an oath; prosecuted for [[contempt of court]], he was defended by Crémieux and acquitted. The French Supreme Court finally declared the oath [[constitutionality|unconstitutional]] on March 3, 1846. However, as late as 1902, a court in [[Romania]] upheld that country's version of the oath.{{cn|date=December 2020}}

==References== {{reflist}} ==External links== *[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=3&letter=O Jewish Encyclopedia] by [[Gotthard Deutsch]]

{{Authority control}} [[Category:1555 in law]] [[Category:Christianity and antisemitism]] [[Category:Jewish oaths]] [[Category:Medieval Jewish history]] [[Category:Disabilities (Jewish) in Europe]]