We’ll now go back to the main topic of the Masechet (tractate), which is Shevuot (oaths, swearing). We took a digression into the world of Tum'a (ritual impurity) and Tahara (ritual purity). Now we’ll go back to oaths.
The Mishnah says, as we said in the opening statement of the first Mishnah, there are oaths of declaration: two types that are, in reality, four. Shevuah she'ochal v'shelo ochal—the first two, which are mentioned in the Torah. A swear that I will eat or a swear that I will not eat, talking about the future. So, these are swears about the future. Those are mentioned straight up in the Torah. The other two are learned out; they are not mentioned straight up in the Torah, but we learn them out: she'achalti v'shelo achalti, I swear that I ate or I swear that I did not eat. “Swear” is a verb. It’s about the past.
We’ll have a machloket (dispute) here about how much a person has to eat in order to violate the swear “I swear I will not eat.” Shevuah she'lo ochal v'achal kol shehu chayav (he would be liable). If a person says, “I swear I will not eat,” and he eats even a very small amount, we say chayav (he would be liable). He is obligated to bring a korban (an offering), a chatat oleh v'yored (variable sin offering), if he did it unintentionally. If he broke this swear on purpose, he would receive malkut (lashes). So even the smallest amount would make this person liable. If he ate anything, he would be liable. This tells us that the amount is not only a kezayit (olive-sized amount). The general rule is that a person would only violate something that would obligate him to receive malkut if he ate a kezayit’s worth.
That is what the Chachamim (Sages) ask. The Chachamim said to Rabbi Akiva, expressing surprise, “What do we find anywhere that anybody who eats kol dehu, a small, tiny amount less than a kezayit, of forbidden food would be liable? Are we now going to obligate this person who violated his oath by eating a tiny amount, and give him lashes if it was intentional, or a chatat oleh v'yored if it was unintentional?”
Rabbi Akiva responded to them, “heichan matzinu—where do we find that a person who speaks brings an offering to atone for the issur (his own prohibition) that he created on himself, which would serve as a model for this person making an oath and then bringing an offering for violating the prohibition he created?” What Rabbi Akiva is really saying is that whenever the Torah establishes an aveirah, the Torah tells us that something is a sin, and the minimum amount for a person to violate what the Torah tells us is a kezayit. But here, the person is violating an issur that he created himself, and that is why he has to bring a korban. The issur he created himself was the prohibition not to eat. He violated that, and now he could make up for it by bringing a korban chatat.
So, according to Rabbi Akiva, the Torah gives a person the power to create his own issur, his own prohibition, and then holds him responsible for violating his word. Therefore, it would hold him responsible for eating whatsoever, even the smallest amount. He intended to prohibit even small amounts, so the Torah is going to hold him responsible for even a very small amount.
A person who makes one swear could sometimes prohibit a few different activities. Now we’ll talk about a situation where a person makes one swear, and whether it is considered to be multiple swears or not.
The Mishnah says: Let’s say a person made a swear and said, “I will not eat.” Then he forgot his swear. He ate and he drank, so he seemingly violated his swear twice. We say he is only obligated to bring one korban, because several violations of that same swear are all atoned for with the one korban that he brings. He violated it twice. When he says, “I will not eat,” it really includes eating and drinking. Even though he violated it twice, since it was one swear, he made one prohibition on himself, and one korban chatat atones for the eating and the drinking.
But if a person said, “I swear I will not eat, and I will not drink,” and he forgot his swear, then he has to bring a korban chatat oleh v'yored. If he ate and he drank, we say he has to bring two korbanot. He is considered to have made two different swears, and he violated both of them.