- בית דין מכין ועונשין שלא מן התורה...כדי לעשות סייג לתורה
Rebbe Eliezer ben Yaakov says: שמעתי שבית דין מכין ועונשין שלא מן התורה – I heard that Beis Din may administer lashes and punishments not prescribed by the Torah. ולא לעבור על דברי תורה – This is not to transgress the Torah’s laws; אלא כדי לעשות סייג לתורה – rather, it is to erect a fence to protect the Torah’s laws. There was an incident, during the period of the Greeks, in which someone rode a horse on Shabbos (which is a Rabbinic prohibition), and he was brought to Beis Din and stoned, לא מפני שראוי לכך – not because he was fit for such a punishment, אלא שהשעה צריכה לכך – but that the times required it, because of a general decline in Shabbos observance at the time, as a result of Roman oppression. In another incident, a man had relations with his wife under a fig tree (not in private) and he was brought to Beis Din and whipped, not because it was the prescribed punishment for him, but because the times required it.
- Hanging the body after stoning, כי קללת אלקים תלוי
The Mishnah on the previous Daf recorded a machlokes about which of those executed by stoning are hanged afterwards. The next Mishnah quotes a machlokes how the hanging was performed, and states that he is untied immediately. If he is left hanging overnight, they violate "לא תלין נבלתו על העץ" – you shall not leave his body overnight on the gallows. The passuk says: כי קללת אלקים תלוי – for a hanged person is a curse of Hashem, because people will ask why he was hanged, and they will say that he “blessed” Hashem, ונמצא שם שמים מתתחלל – resulting in Hashem’s Name being profaned. Rebbe Meir says that when a person suffers, the Shechinah says: קלני מראשי קלני מזרועי – “I am burdened by My head; I am burdened by My arm.” If Hashem is pained by the spilled blood of רשעים, kal vachomer by the spilled blood of צדיקים! In a Baraisa, Rebbe Meir provides a משל illustrating how a hanged person is “a curse of Hashem”: it is like twin brothers, one of whom was appointed king, and the other became a bandit, and was hanged. But people who saw him said, “The king has been hanged!” and the king ordered him taken down.
- If קבורה isמשום בזיונא or כפרה, and if hespedim are for the honor of the deceased or the living
Rebbe Shimon ben Yochai said that the passuk "כי קבור תקברנו" – rather, you shall surely bury him, teaches that one who leaves any deceased relative unburied overnight violates a לא תעשה (of לא תלין), or, in another version, is a רמז to the principle of burial. The Gemara asks: קבורה משום בזיונא הוא – is the purpose of burial to avoid disgrace to the מת and his family, or משום כפרה הוא – it is to obtain atonement for the מת? A practical difference would be where the person asks not to be buried (he cannot impose the disgrace upon his family, but he can refuse the כפרה). Several proofs are brought but are deflected. The Gemara then asks: הספידא יקרא דחיי הוי – is the purpose of a eulogy for the honor of the living relatives, או יקרא דשכבי הוי – or is it for the honor of the dead himself? One practical difference is if the person asks not to be eulogized (since he can forgo only his own honor). Another difference is whether we would force the heirs to fund the eulogy against their will. After many proofs are deflected, the Gemara will eventually prove that hespedim are for the honor of the deceased.