Three Oaths

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The Three Oaths is the popular name for a midrash found in the Babylonian Talmud,^[1] which interprets three verses from Song of Solomon as God adjuring three oaths upon the world. Two oaths pertain to the Jewish people and a third oaths applies to the other nations of the world. For their part, Jews were sworn not to forcefully reclaim the Land of Israel and not to rebel against the other nations. In turn, the other nations were sworn not to subjugate the Jews excessively.

Among Orthodox Jews today there are primarily two ways of viewing this midrash. Haredim who are strongly anti-Zionist often view this midrash as legally binding, and therefore the movement to establish the state of Israel and its continued existence would be a violation of Jewish law, whereas Religious Zionists have the view that either the oaths are no longer applicable or that they are indeed binding, but the current movement is not a violation of them. Both buttress their positions by citing historic rabbinic sources in favor of their view.^[2]