Sanhedrin Daf 46 - Hanging the body, Halanas Hameis, Kevurah
Summary
- This shiur surveys Sanhedrin 45b–46a, resolving whether *be'inan k'ra k'dikhtiv* or not through tannaitic disputes, and presenting a Mishnah on whose body is hanged after stoning and how hanging is performed, along with the prohibition of *lo talin* and the process of burial. It establishes the scope of hanging through derivations from כי קללת אלקים תלוי, contrasts derech ha-derash between כללי ופרטי and ריבויי ומיעוטי, and analyzes whether women are included, with a further inclusion of a *ben sorer u-moreh* via אין מיעוט אחר מיעוט אלא לרבות. It defines limits on executing multiple people in one day, illustrates Beit Din’s emergency powers of מכין ועונשין שלא מן התורה and their constraints, and explicates the Shechinah’s צער, R’ Meir’s משל of the twins, and the broader lav of הלנת המת with exceptions for kavod ha-met. It probes whether *kevurah* is mandated מן התורה and whether its purpose is to avoid *bizayon* or to effect *kapparah*, leaving that question unresolved and foreshadowing a coming analysis of the purpose of *hesped*.
- The shiur states that it is sponsored by אבישי and אלישע בן נומן לזכות ורפואה שלמה for חיים נפתלי בן פרומעט פרידא and for שרה פרידא בת חיה, that they should both have a רפואה שלמה בתוך שאר חולי ישראל. The learning begins about five lines before the Mishnah on Sanhedrin 45b and aims to complete the sugya and reach the Mishnah on 46a.
- The sugya presents a proof from *ir hanidachat*: רבי ישמעאל holds that if the city lacks a *rechov* it cannot be made an *ir hanidachat*, whereas רבי עקיבא holds one makes a *rechov* now; both assume one must fulfill the verse’s detail, but argue whether a newly added *rechov* counts “as if original.” The Gemara concludes תנא היא: a parallel dispute appears in a מצורע lacking requisite limbs, where one Tanna invalidates purification forever, רבי אלעזר permits placing on the place of the missing limb, and רבי שמעון permits using the left side, showing positions that require and that do not require *k'ra k'dikhtiv*.
- The Mishnah states: רבי אליעזר holds כל הנסקלין נתלין, while חכמים limit hanging to מגדף ועובד עבודה זרה. Sefer HaChinuch writes that תליה serves as deterrent through public spectacle, whereas Ramban writes that תליה reflects the gravity of the sinner’s deed, fitting for מגדף ועובד עבודה זרה.
- The Baraita derives from והומת ותלית and כי קללת אלקים תלוי that רבי אליעזר reads a ריבוי ומיעוט to include all נסקלין (especially when מרוחק), and חכמים read כללי ופרטי to include only cases like מגדף, with עובד עבודה זרה added because the כלל and פרט are מרוחקים. Tosafot resolves Menachot’s rule that מרוחקים are not judged as רגיל כלל ופרט by explaining that they are judged as כלל ופרט but with an expansive inclusion, as seen here. Rashi explains אין בכלל אלא מה שבפרט as the פרט being a פירוש of the כלל, and the Ran explains the utility of mentioning the כלל is to preclude other derivations (קל וחומר, מה מצינו, בנין אב), thus confining the learning to כלל ופרט.
- The Gemara derives ותלית אותו as excluding a woman according to חכמים, while רבי אליעזר uses אותו for “*belo kisuto*,” and חכמים derive exclusion from וכי יהיה באיש חטא as איש ולא אשה. רבי אליעזר includes a *ben sorer u-moreh* through a double exclusion—איש ולא בן and חטא מי שעל חטאו נהרג—yielding אין מיעוט אחר מיעוט אלא לרבות; Rashi calls this a מידי היא בתורה, and the יד רמ״ה offers sevarot: an אינו עניין shift, a מגלה on the first מיעוט, or a מיעוט of the מיעוט that results in a ריבוי. רבי אליעזר states that שמעון בן שטח hung women in Ashkelon; חכמים answer that it was a הוראת שעה and that he executed many in one day, raising tension with Rambam (Hil. Sanhedrin 24) about lack of עדים והתראה and דרישה וחקירה and prompting אחרונים’ questions.
- רבי אליעזר states that a man is hung facing the people and a woman facing the tree, while חכמים hold that a woman is not hung. The יד רמ״ה explains that a woman faces inward to preserve dignity consistent with ואהבת לרעך כמוך, and רבנו הלל in ספרי כי תצא links it to צניעות; Sefer סנהדרי קטנה proposes a symbolic reading: a woman faces the *etz* in allusion to חוה and the עץ הדעת, and a man faces the people because peer pressure often drives his sin.
- רב חסדא limits the prohibition of “אין דנין שנים ביום אחד” to cases of שתי מיתות or to מיתה אחת כעין שתי מיתות כגון שתי עבירות, but permits multiple with מיתה אחת ועבירה אחת. The statement “ואפילו בנואף ונואפת” is explained as *bat kohen* and her בועל (שתי מיתות) or *bat kohen* with זוממי זוממיה; ראשונים debate whether the core limit hinges on שתי עבירות or שתי מיתות, reflecting whether עדים זוממים are viewed as bearing the other’s sin or only the other’s punishment.
- רבי אלעזר בן יעקב testifies that בית דין מכין ועונשין שלא מן התורה not to transgress the Torah but לעשות סייג לתורה, exemplified by stoning one who rode a horse on Shabbat בימי יוונים and flogging one who cohabited with his wife under a fig tree, both מפני שהשעה צריכה לכך. The רשב״א requires that such measures be when השעה צריכה לכך, and the Ran requires a בית דין of *mumchin ve-samuchin*, with governmental mandate allowing broader societal enforcement as noted by Rav Moshe Feinstein concerning capital punishment. The Taz infers a limit from “ולא לעבור על דברי תורה אלא כדי לעשות סייג לתורה” that Chazal cannot legislate against an explicit פסוק, even as they may restrict דאורייתא practice (e.g., not blowing shofar on Shabbat).
- The Mishnah states that a beam is set with a crosspiece or leaned against a wall (רבי יוסי) and the condemned is hung by the hands briefly and then immediately lowered. One who leaves the body overnight violates *lo talin*, because כי קללת אלקים תלוי and leaving him visible perpetuates the ביזוי where all see that he בירך את השם. R’ Meir teaches that when a person suffers the שכינה says קלני מראשי קלני מזרועי, implying that if the Omnipresent grieves over the blood of רשעים, all the more so over צדיקים; the Gemara anchors this in the form קללת (rather than מקלל), yielding both the halacha of מקלל and the lament of the שכינה.
- R’ Meir illustrates with a parable of identical twins, one a king and one a bandit, where hanging the bandit leads onlookers to think the king hangs, prompting the king to lower the body. The parable asserts that man’s *tzelem Elokim* makes a hanging body an affront to Heaven, intensifying the imperative to avoid *lo talin*.
- The Tanna teaches that “ולא זו בלבד” extends the איסור to anyone who leaves his dead unburied overnight, with allowance when delaying is לכבודו such as bringing an *aron ve-tachrichin* or other honorifics. The minhag permits delay to bury in ארץ ישראל, with Rav Shternbuch limiting prolonged delay, albeit others disagree. The Mishnah states that הרוגי בית דין are first buried in the designated two cemeteries (one for נסקלין ונשרפים and one for נהרגים ונחנקים), later reinterred with family after flesh decomposes, relatives greet the dayanim and edim expressing no grievance, and they do not observe אבלות though they have אנינות, either to effect continued כפרה through ביזוי (Rashi) or under the frame of באבוד רשעים רנה according to other ראשונים.
- The Baraita limits עץ to a detached implement since it must be buried too, excluding a tree that is מחוסר קציצה וקבורה (רבנן), and רבי יוסי excludes even a stake set into the ground as מחוסר תלישה וקבורה. The רבנן consider תלישה negligible compared to קציצה, thus permitting a pole placed in the ground.
- רבי יוחנן בשם רבי שמעון בן יוחי derives a lav for הלנת המת from “כי קבור תקברנו,” and an alternate tradition presents it as a רמז לקבורה מן התורה. Shapur the king challenges Rav Hama for a biblical source for *kevurah*; Rav Acha bar Yaakov criticizes the silence, yet the Gemara explains that each proposed verse—*ki kavor*, *tikberenu*, patriarchal burials, Hashem burying Moshe, “ובספדו לו כל ישראל וקברו אתו,” or “לא יספדו ולא יקברו”—could be deflected as מנהגא or lacking probative force in Shapur’s eyes.
- The sugya asks whether *kevurah* serves to avert *bizayon* or to effect *kapparah*, with a נפקא מינה of a person declaring “I do not want burial.” The proofs test burial of צדיקים (who still need *kapparah* per “אדם אין צדיק בארץ אשר יעשה טוב ולא יחטא”), the verse about אביה בן ירבעם who merited eulogy and burial while his brothers did not, and Jeremiah’s punishment “לא יספדו ולא יקברו,” each resolvable as either granting or withholding *kapparah* by desert, leaving the question unresolved.
- The shiur foresees analyzing the goal of *hesped*—whether it honors the living family or the deceased—and identifying several נפקא מינות with nine proofs to that effect, to be continued on the next daf.
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