The First Hard Rock Café

We have just learned extensively about the subject of the death penalty in the Gemara. I wanted to provide a concise recap of many of the relevant laws, based on the Rambam. The Rambam says there are 18 aveiros that are eligible for sekilah—stoning. Listed among them are idolatry, sorcery, and the willful desecration of Shabbos. However, the punishment of stoning (or any of the other death penalties) was rarely meted out, because rarely have all the necessary factors been present, as I will explain.

A person whose life had led him down a rocky road decided to commit the aveirah of idolatry. For him to be convicted of this crime, witnesses would need to be present and actually see him commit the aveirah. Circumstantial evidence is not valid in Sanhedrin. The proverbial “smoking gun” isn’t enough.

Moreover, the witnesses cannot take for granite that the individual knows that what he is about to do is a sin. They need to warn him that the action he is about to perform has a penalty of stoning and if he carries through his life will hit rock bottom. He has to acknowledge the warning and commit the offense anyway, within roughly four seconds of the warning. Anyone who is ultimately stoned must have been off his rocker, committing suicide by proxy. What occurred must be firmly cemented in the witnesses’ minds, because they will be grilled on it.

The witnesses come to beis din. The judges must be tzadikim themselves, because people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. Furthermore, it is preferable that they understand many languages, because it shouldn’t make a difference whether the witnesses are from the Rock of Gibraltar, Estonia, or The Rockaways. The judges should be able to understand their testimony without using a translator. (There seems to be a dispute whether this is a requirement or a preference. The language used by the Rambam might indicate that it is only a preference.)

The boulder and more prominent of the witnesses testifies first, as the 23 judges listen. The witnesses are thoroughly interrogated. No stone is left unturned. If their testimony is rock solid, then the next phase can begin. A straw poll is taken. If all the judges believe that the accused is guilty, he is released! It is the bedrock of the Torah’s judicial system that the accused must be found guilty after due process. If no judge thinks he is innocent, then the deliberations might have just been perfunctory. Consequently, the accused cannot be convicted.

If there is at least one judge who believes the accused is guilty, deliberations can progress. The judges are not allowed to reach a conclusion that day, but they must sleep on it. The next day the deliberations continue. A judge who initially ruled innocent cannot rock the boat and change his position to guilty during the deliberations. Once a judge has given his initial determination of innocence, he must faithfully argue that position until the final tally is taken.

For a guilty verdict to be reached, there must be at least two more judges in the final tally who rule “guilty” than those who rule “innocent.” If the verdict is indeed guilty, then the judges have to be stone cold and see the penalty carried out. If they did not, then they have violated a miztvas aseh. (After the judges have pronounced their guilty verdict, they must not eat rock candy or otherwise partake in any gastronomic pleasures until the end of the day.)

At this point they send the condemned man out of beis din. The place where the stoning would occur was not near beis din. One reason is so that the condemned man could still plead his case along the way. In Jewish law, a guilty capital verdict is never set in stone. Beis din is always willing to hear new arguments until the end.

If by some chance their quarry escaped along the way, beis din is permitted to use any available method to kill him. Stoning combines three elements. First the man was pushed off a platform. If he didn’t die from the fall, a large boulder was thrown on him. If he was still alive at that point, he would be pelted with stones until he died. The Gemara says that the third step was never necessary, as the first two were always sufficient.

The Gemara relates that the righteous women of Yerushalayim would bring the condemned man a cocktail containing levonah and arak, which perhaps was served on the rocks. This was to take the edge off before he fell off the platform. Alternatively, as Rabbi Becher of Gateways puts it, “This was so the condemned man should be stoned before he was stoned.” If the righteous women did not supply this drink, then beis din would supply it.

As I said earlier, these executions were rarely carried out. Hopefully just the possibility of the ultimate punishment should be enough to deter sinners.

I wanted to relate an insight connected to the daf that I heard from my father. The Gemara relates that the death penalty of sereifah was accomplished by forcing the condemned man to drink molten lead. This burned the inside of his body but left the outside intact. The Gemara says that since there are two possibilities as to how to accomplish sereifah—either by burning the man’s insides or his entire body—we choose the former, to fulfill the verse “Love thy neighbor.” We are obligated to choose for the condemned man the best possible death. At least in death, he will retain some dignity by having his body intact.

In the year 3213 (548 BCE), Sancheirev attacked Yehudah and laid siege to Yerushalayim. Chizkiyahu prayed to Hashem. In an answer to his tefillos, an astounding miracle occurred; 185,000 of Sancheirev’s officers instantly perished together with their soldiers. The Gemara states that each of these officers led ten soldiers. In what way did they die? The Midrash says they died the same death that Nadav and Avihu did: fire came down from the heavens and burnt their insides while leaving their bodies intact. Why were the bodies of the soldiers spared disgrace? It was a reward for the mitzvah that Shem did when he covered his father Noach when he was bare.

We can see from here the great reward that Hashem is destined to give us for every mitzvah. Shem did a mitzvah that any loyal son would do to spare his father disgrace. It wasn’t a particularly hard mitzvah in any way. Yet Hashem rewarded him by performing a kindness to approximately two million of his descendants as payback for that one brief action he took. How much more so will Hashem reward us for any mitzvah that we have to fulfill in the face of adversity and challenge! We should therefore strive to overcome all obstacles when performing mitzvos and not get burnt out.