Shevuot 49: Guardians, Oaths, Lies, and the Importance of Word Choice

Today's daf marks the last day of Masechet Shevuot.  The rabbis introduce one last Perek. It is concerned with the four types of guardians or watchmen.  A new Mishna states that these guardians are the shomer chinam - the unpaid guardian, the borrower, the shomer shachar - the paid guardian, and the reenter.

• the unpaid guardian swears about damages when a deposit was broken, captured, killed, lost or stolen and he is exempt
• a borrower pays for any damage to the deposit unless it died while working, in which case he is exempt
• the paid guardian and the renter swears and both are exempt if the deposit was broken, captured, or died; he must pay if the deposit was lost or stolen

The Mishna goes on to describe a number of cases where witnesses swear differently.  One might swear that the damage did not occur, or that one did not take any money and thus is actually an unpaid guardian, or that a borrower did not steal an ox, or many many other cases.  

The Gemara begins with a basic question: who wrote this Mishna, and who decided that there are four guardians?  After arguing, Rabbi Nachman bar Yitzchak states that there are four guardians but only three laws applying to them ( for the paid guardian and the renter are subject to the same halachot).

Returning to arguments discussed early in this masechet, the rabbis debate about positive and negative applications of an oath.  They discuss the possibility of being forced to swear and thus to lie.  

At the end of today's daf, Reish Lakish notes that there are four meanings of the word "ki".  These are if, perhaps, rather, and because.  Depending on the meaning of this word, a judge might interpret a witness's claim inappropriately.  Thus we end our daf and Masechet Shevuot with a reminder of the importance of choosing our words carefully, especially when we make an oath.