Select a compassionate death TB Sanhedrin 52

Today’s daf TB Sanhedrin 52 explains how to execute the guilty party by burning (שְׂרֵיפָה), decapitation (הֶרֶג   or סַיִיף), and strangulation (חֶנֶק). Each death penalty is not what you would normally expect from the simple reading of the text. The rabbis were forced to discuss how to execute the guilty party because the Torah provides death penalties; however, they tried their best to exonerate the defendant as I wrote earlier. We also have to remember that some 40 years before the Temple was destroyed, capital punishment was no longer sentenced.

There is no good way to execute the guilty person. When describing the method of execution the rabbis tried to take a method that was the most painless and maintained the persons in inherent dignity thus observing the commandment ““And you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18), which teaches that even with regard to a condemned prisoner, one should select a good, i.e., a compassionate, death for him” (Sefaria.org translation)

Burning: “Rabbi Yehuda says:…One opens the mouth of the condemned person with prongs, against his will, and one lights the wick (the Gemara: what type of wick -Rav Mattana says: A wick of lead, i.e., a long, thin piece of lead in the shape of a wick, which is melted and poured down into the intestines.-gg) and throws it into his mouth, and it goes down into his intestines and burns his intestines and he dies” (Sefaria.org translation) Only the convict’s insides organs are burnt. The body itself remains intact and maintains its dignity. From this understanding we can appreciate why tradition forbids cremation.

Decapitation (הֶרֶג   or סַיִיף): “The mitzva of those who are killed, i.e., the process of execution by decapitation, is carried out in the following manner: The executioners cut off his head with a sword, the way that the monarchy does when a king sentences a person to death.” Sefaria.org translation) I believe the executioner decapitated the standing guilty person because Rabbi Yehuda had the convict lying down. The sages believed this method was more degrading because it treated the guilty person like a butcher hacking a piece of meat.

Strangulation (חֶנֶק): “The mitzva of those who are strangled is carried out in the following manner: The agents of the court submerge the condemned one in dung up to his knees so he cannot move, and one of them places a rough scarf within a soft one, and wraps it around his neck. This one, i.e., one of the witnesses, pulls the scarf toward him, and that one, the other witness, pulls it toward him, until the soul of the condemned one departs.” (Sefaria.org translation)

This daf contains a very famous Midrash. Some rabbis learn that burning only meant burning the inside organs and not the body itself from the story of Nadav and Avihu. They offered up a strange fire as a sacrifice and was punished. “And from where does the one who derives that burning means this kind of death from the sons of Aaron derive that their bodies were not burned? The Gemara answers: He derives it from that which is written: “And fire came out from before the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord” (Leviticus 10:2). The term “and they died” indicates that it was similar to a natural death, in which the body remains intact.” (Sefaria.org translation)

What was Nadav and Avihu’s thinking to usurp their father Aaron’s position? The Gemara paints them as being very chutspadic. “Apropos the deaths of Nadav and Avihu, an aggadic midrash on this subject is quoted: And it had already happened that Moses and Aaron were walking on their way, and Nadav and Avihu were walking behind them, and the entire Jewish people were walking behind them. Nadav said to Avihu: When will it happen that these two old men will die and you and I will lead the generation, as we are their heirs? The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to them: We shall see who buries whom. Rav Pappa says: This explains the adage that people say: Many are the old camels that are loaded with the skins of young camels.” (Sefaria.org translation)