- One who is מרביע or מנהיג a (redeemed) disqualified korban transgresses כלאים
Rebbe Hoshaya says: המרביע שור פסולי המוקדשים – one who breeds a bull which was a disqualified korban and redeemed, even with its own species, לוקה שנים – incurs two sets of malkus. This korban, which was disqualified with a מום, allowing redemption, may be shechted and eaten, but retains some status of kedushah, and remains forbidden in work or shearing. It is therefore considered like two bodies of different species, and any breeding (even with a cow) is considered interbreeding. [The Rashash explains that the second set malkus is because the breeding is considered like working the redeemed korban.] Rebbe Yitzchak says: המנהיג בשור פסולי המוקדשים – one who leads a bull which was a disqualified korban and redeemed, which does some kind of work by its being led, receives malkus for working with כלאים, even if he leads it by itself, שהרי גוף אחד הוא – for although it is a single body, ועשאו הכתוב כשני גופים – and the Torah made it like two bodies.
- "במספר ארבעים" means thirty-nine lashes, (כמה טפשאי...)
The next Mishnah gives the maximum number of malkus received: ארבעים חסר אחת – forty minus one (thirty-nine), because the passuk says: "במספר ארבעים" – in the number of forty, meaning: מנין שהוא סמוך לארבעים – the number which is next to forty. Rebbe Yehudah disagrees, and says he receives literally forty lashes [the fortieth lash, which is not divisible by three, is between his shoulders].
The Gemara explains the Tanna Kamma’s derashah: if the passuk had said “forty,” it would indeed mean literally forty. Since it says "במספר ארבעים" – in the number of forty, it means: מנין שהוא סוכם את הארבעים – the number which “counts” forty (i.e., thirty-nine, which causes “forty” to be counted after it). Rava said: כמה טפשאי שאר אינשי – How foolish are [most] people, דקיימי מקמי ספר תורה – who stand up before a sefer Torah, ולא קיימי מקמי גברא רבה – but do not stand up before a great [Torah scholar]! דאילו בספר תורה כתיב ארבעים – Because although the Torah says “forty” lashes, ואתו רבנן בצרו חדא – yet the Rabbis came and subtracted one.
- The malkus procedure
The next Mishnah describes the malkus procedure. His hands are bound on two sides of a post, and the officer of the congregation seizes his garments, whether they tear or split open, until he uncovers his heart. The stone is placed behind the one receiving malkus, and the officer stands on it with a strap in his hand made of calfskin doubled over into two, as well as another doubled strap (totaling four), plus two straps (of donkey-hide) pushed through holes in the top and bottom of the calfskin. The handle is a tefach long, the width is a tefach, and the strap must be able to reach around to his stomach (Abaye will say this requires various size whips, but Rava says the whip was adjustable in length). He strikes one third of the lashes on his front, and two thirds of them on his back. The one being whipped is לא עומד ולא יושב אלא מוטה – not standing or sitting, but bent over, as the passuk says, "והפילו השופט" – and the judge will cast him down. והמכה מכה בידו אחת בכל כחו – the one whipping whips with one hand, with all his strength, and the reader reads various pesukim from the Torah, and if he completes them, begins them again.
