Scheming Witnesses

The justice system of the Torah requires that we depend on the testimony of two upright witnesses to help find the guilty party in a dispute or financial matters.

We are to interrogate the witnesses to be sure that they are telling the truth. This seems to be the best method to get to the truth and find out the facts.

The Torah warns of the possibility of scheming witnesses, known as עדים זוממים. They are to be punished by giving them the penalty they wished to place on their friend.

For example, if these witnesses lied and said that someone damaged another person’s property on a particular day, and the damage was assessed at a thousand dollars.

When two other witnesses come and contradict them by saying that they could not have witnessed that incident. The two sets of witnesses were together in another city at that time.

The scheming witnesses will pay the thousand dollars instead of the friend they tried to frame.

The Gemara lists two exceptions where the Eidim Zommemim get lashes instead of their intended scheme. One example is where they testify about a Kohein that he is not a legitimate Kohein because his mother is a divorcee. They can’t make the lying witnesses invalid Kohanim. Instead, they get lashes.

Similarly, if they testify that someone committed a crime that would send him to a city of refuge, we would not send the scheming witnesses to a city of refuge. Instead, they would get lashes.

The Tanach describes the evil Queen Jezebel who hired scheming witnesses to testify against Navot, that he was deserving of the death penalty. After she succeeded, Eliyahu Hanavi came to her husband, Achav, and said those famous words, הרצחת וגם ירשת, “Did you murder and also inherit?”

The laws of testimony are very interesting, and demonstrate the Divine wisdom of the Torah.