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This final chapter of Sanhedrin deals with the punishment of strangulation. Criminals punishable by strangulation are:
- One who strikes one of their parents and bruises them
- Someone who kidnaps and sells a fellow Jew into slavery
- A sage who attempts to establish halakha against the norms of the Oral Law
- A false prophet
- An adulterer – except for the daughter of a kohen, who is burned to death for adultery
- False witnesses who testify that a daughter of a kohen has committed adultery
A few thoughts on the specific mishnayot:
Amongst other issues, Mishnah 1 asks whether kidnapping and selling one’s own child is also a capital offense. Given that in the ancient world children could be taken as payment for their parents’ debts – see for example the story of Elisha and the widow – the question gets to fundamental issues around the relationship between parents and children.
Mishnayot 2 – 3 deal with the wayward sage. This is a category which exists to protect the sanctity of our Oral tradition.
- A sage who argues tries to establish that there is no such halakha as tefillin is not liable for death; but a sage who tries to establish that, contra the Oral Law, the tefillin shel rosh has five, not four boxes is liable.
- This sage is executed by the 71-member Supreme Court which resides on the Temple grounds – the court most strongly associated with issuing Law (and not just adjudicating decisions).
- Getting the word out about the execution – and thus reaffirming the Oral Law we have – is central to the punishment.
Note that the sage is liable for trying to change halakhic practice against the reigning Oral Law – he is not liable for making a purely theoretical argument.
Mishnah 4 – 6 deal with the false prophet.
- The technical title of False Prophet is reserved for a prophet who claims falsely to have received the word of God. We know they’re lying because a) their prophecy hasn’t come true exactly as prophesied (unless it’s a prophecy of destruction – in which case we assume that God may have had mercy and relented); or b) the prophecy goes against a fundamental axiom of Torah (for instance, a prophecy that God has completely removed a mitzvah).
- While a False Prophet is subject to execution, other violations of prophecy – such as refusing to listen to a prophet’s command – are subject to being struck down by God, not by people.
- A related category of capital crime is someone who claims to have received prophecy from another god. This is punishable by strangulation even if the prophet claims the god has decreed we must follow the mitzvot to the letter of the law.
Mishnah 5 deals with the false witnesses of a kohen’s daughter. Generally, that false witness is given the punishment they try to lay on their victim – and therefore a false witness accusing a kohen’s daughter of adultery should have been burned to death. However, the Oral Law tells us, the punishment of burning a kohen’s daughter for adultery is for her alone.
If I had to venture an explanation: Perhaps while an intended punishment for a crime is normally “ricocheted” back on to a false witness, a kohen’s daughter’s unique punishment is a reflection of her status, and not her crime – and therefore can’t be transferred to the false witness.
Whatever the reason for the Law, the discussion of false witnesses gets us in gear for the masekhet which deals extensively with false witnesses: Masekhet Makot, which is up next.
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