Q&A: A Relative Is Disqualified from Testimony
A Relative Is Disqualified from Testimony
Question
Regarding this issue:
1. Why is it really not because we suspect that he is lying? Is this an interpretive workaround? Because by plain common sense we all agree that a relative is personally involved, and surely he would lie for his relative! Who wouldn’t lie for his brother or his father?
2. What is the proof from Moses and Aaron that a relative is not disqualified because we suspect he will lie (but rather that it is a scriptural decree)? Why do we simply assume that they would not lie? They were human beings like you and me, weren’t they?
Answer
That is not necessarily true. The presumption is that a person does not sin when there is nothing in it for him. So a person is suspected with regard to himself, but not with regard to someone else. Of course there is some concern, but it is not enough to disqualify him across the board. And this is certainly true of Moses and Aaron. Incidentally, Moses and Aaron are not actually a proof, since there is no source that explicitly disqualifies them. One could have said that although a relative is suspected of lying, someone who truly is not suspected is in fact valid, like Moses and Aaron. So this is an illustration, not a proof. It comes to say that the disqualification does not stem from a concern about lying.
Beyond that, a relative is disqualified from testifying even against his relative. Is there also a concern about lying there?
And one more remark. The decision whether to lie does not stem only from an urge to help or harm someone. There is another side to the equation: the severity of the transgression of lying, and the duty to deal with offenders (through truthful testimony). Clearly there is motivation to lie for the benefit of a relative, but on the other hand there is also the fear of judgment and of the transgression involved. So even if Moses and Aaron were people like you and me, they had fear of Heaven, and because of that it is clear they would not have lied.