Your reputation is at stake TB Sanhedrin 29

Obviously every court wants to discover the truth so the judges can rule appropriately. The Mishnah on today’s daf TB Sanhedrin 29 begins “How do the judges examine the witnesses? They bring them into a room in the courthouse and intimidate them so that they will speak only the truth.” (Sefaria.org translation)

The Gemara provides three suggestions what the judges should say to the witnesses to induce them to speak the truth. The first two suggestions are rejected.

“The Gemara asks: What do we say to them?

1.    Rav Yehuda says that this is what we say to them: It is stated: “As clouds and wind without rain, so is he who boasts himself of a false gift” (Proverbs 25:14). In other words, there will be no rain and no blessing from your deeds if you lie. (This approach is rejected because the witnesses can rationalize that the drought won’t really affect them because they’re not farmers as Rava explains-GG) Rava said to him: If so, false witnesses can say to themselves that they do not have to worry about this punishment, according to the folk saying: Seven years there was a famine, but over the craftsman’s door it did not pass. If the witnesses are not farmers, they do not need to worry over lack of rain. Consequently, they will disregard this concern.

2.    Rather, Rava said that we say this verse to them: “As a hammer, and a sword, and a sharp arrow, so is a man who bears false witness against his neighbor” (Proverbs 25:18), meaning that a false witness will die prematurely. (This approach is also rejected because all people don’t worry about their far off death as Rav Ashi explains-gg) Rav Ashi said to him: Here too, false witnesses can say to themselves a folk saying: Seven years there was a pestilence, but a man who has not reached his years did not die; everyone dies at his predestined time. Therefore, they will disregard this concern as well.

3.    Rather, Rav Ashi said: Natan bar Mar Zutra said to me that we say to them that false witnesses are belittled even by those who hire them, and all the more so by others; as it is written that Jezebel said when she ordered witnesses to be hired to testify against Naboth: “And set two men, base fellows, before him, and let them bear witness against him, saying: You cursed God and the king” (I Kings 21:10). Even Jezebel, who gave the orders to hire them, called them “base fellows.” (Sefaria.org translation)

The judges warned the witnesses that their reputation is at stake. If they are proven to be liars, not only will upstanding citizens think terribly of them, but also the wicked person who hired them to lie recognizes that they are horrible people. The judges speak to the witnesses’ ego and warn them that their bad reputation will always follow them and nobody will think well of them.