Chapter: A Comprehensive Discussion of Oaths

In questions of oaths, what matters is the intention of the one who swears. Thus, if a person is invited to lunch and swears, “I will not take lunch”2, he is not considered to have broken his oath should he eat a different lunch—provided that the particular lunch to which he had been invited was indeed what he meant to exclude.

Likewise, if he swears, “I will not enter So-and-so’s house,” and then explains, “I meant today,” his explanation is accepted in court, and he does not break his oath by entering that house on any other day.