Talmud - Makkot 7a מכות ז׳ א׳

Apropos disqualified witnesses, the Gemara relates: Two people called Ile’a and Tuviyya, who signed as witnesses on a promissory note, were relatives of the guarantor of the loan. Rav Pappa thought to say that since vis-à-vis the borrower and lender these witnesses are distant and are not related, their testimony on the document is valid. Rav Huna, son of Rav Yehoshua, said to Rav Pappa: If the borrower does not have the means to repay the loan, doesn’t the lender pursue the guarantor to claim his debt? Therefore, the guarantor is party to the loan, and his relatives are not eligible to serve as witnesses on the promissory note.

MISHNA: This mishna continues to discuss the matter of testimony in the case of one who is liable to be executed. Concerning one whose verdict was delivered and he was sentenced to death and he fled, and he then came before the same court that sentenced him, they do not overturn his verdict and retry him. Rather, the court administers the previous verdict. Consequently, in any place where two witnesses will stand and say: We testify with regard to a man called so-and-so that his verdict was delivered and he was sentenced to death in the court of so-and-so, and so-and-so and so-and-so were his witnesses, that person shall be executed on the basis of that testimony.

The mishna continues: The mitzva to establish a Sanhedrin with the authority to administer capital punishments is in effect both in Eretz Yisrael and outside Eretz Yisrael. A Sanhedrin that executes a transgressor once in seven years is characterized as a destructive tribunal. Since the Sanhedrin would subject the testimony to exacting scrutiny, it was extremely rare for a defendant to be executed. Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya says: This categorization applies to a Sanhedrin that executes a transgressor once in seventy years. Rabbi Tarfon and Rabbi Akiva say: If we had been members of the Sanhedrin, we would have conducted trials in a manner whereby no person would have ever been executed. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: In adopting that approach, they too would increase the number of murderers among the Jewish people. The death penalty would lose its deterrent value, as all potential murderers would know that no one is ever executed.

GEMARA: The Gemara infers: It is in the case of one who comes before the same court that they do not overturn the verdict, but if one comes before a different court they overturn the verdict and retry the case. The Gemara asks: Isn’t it taught in the latter clause of the mishna: Any place where two witnesses will stand and say: We testify with regard to a man called so-and-so that his verdict was delivered and he was sentenced to death in the court of so-and-so, and so-and-so and so-and-so were his witnesses, that person shall be executed on the basis of that testimony? This indicates that the verdict is not overturned and the defendant is not retried even before another court.

Abaye said: This apparent contradiction is not difficult, as here, in the first clause of the mishna, from which it was inferred that the second court overturns the initial verdict, it is referring to a case where the initial verdict was outside Eretz Yisrael and the defendant came before a court in Eretz Yisrael. There, in the latter clause, which indicates that the second court sustains the initial verdict and does not retry the defendant, it is referring to a case where the initial verdict was in Eretz Yisrael, and the case subsequently came before a court outside Eretz Yisrael.

This is as it is taught in a baraita, that Rabbi Yehuda ben Dostai says in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Shataḥ: If a convicted defendant fled from Eretz Yisrael to outside Eretz Yisrael one does not overturn his verdict. Rather, they implement the initial verdict. But if one fled from outside Eretz Yisrael to Eretz Yisrael, one overturns his verdict and the defendant is retried. Perhaps, due to the merit of Eretz Yisrael, the court will discover a reason to exonerate him.

§ The mishna teaches: The mitzva to establish a Sanhedrin with the authority to administer capital punishments is in effect both in Eretz Yisrael and outside Eretz Yisrael. The Gemara clarifies: From where are these matters derived? It is as the Sages taught: It is written with regard to the sentencing of murderers: “And these shall be for you as a statute of justice for your generations in all your dwelling places” (Numbers 35:29), from which we learn that the mitzva to establish a Sanhedrin is in effect both in Eretz Yisrael and outside Eretz Yisrael.

If so, what is the meaning when the verse states: “Judges and officers you shall appoint in all your gates” (Deuteronomy 16:18), which indicates that the mitzva to establish a Sanhedrin is in effect where the gates are yours, i.e., only in Eretz Yisrael? The explanation is as follows: In your gates, in Eretz Yisrael, you establish courts in each and every district and in each and every city, and outside Eretz Yisrael you establish courts in each and every district, but you do not establish courts in each and every city. The requirement to establish courts in every city is only in Eretz Yisrael.

§ The mishna teaches: A Sanhedrin that executes once in seven years is characterized as a destructive tribunal. Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya says: This categorization applies to a Sanhedrin that executes once in seventy years. A dilemma was raised before the Sages: Is Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya saying that a Sanhedrin that executes once in seventy, rather than seven, years is characterized as a destructive tribunal? Or perhaps he is saying that standard conduct is for a Sanhedrin to execute once in seventy years, and only if it executes more than one person during that period is it characterized as destructive? The Gemara concludes: The dilemma shall stand unresolved.

The mishna teaches that Rabbi Tarfon and Rabbi Akiva say: If we had been members of the Sanhedrin, we would have conducted the trials in a manner where no person would have ever been executed. The Gemara asks: How would they have acted to spare the accused from execution if witnesses testified that he intentionally committed murder? Rabbi Yoḥanan and Rabbi Elazar both say that they would have asked the witnesses: Did you see whether the accused killed a tereifa, i.e., a person with a condition that would lead to his death within twelve months, or if he killed someone who was intact? The halakhic status of a tereifa is like that of one who is dead, in the sense that one who kills him is not executed. Since no witness can be certain with regard to the victim’s physical condition, they would invalidate any testimony to a murder.

Rav Ashi said: Even if you say that they examined him postmortem and he was intact the testimony could be challenged, as perhaps in the place that the sword pierced the victim’s body there was a perforation in one of the organs that renders the person a tereifa, but which was rendered undetectable by the wound caused by the sword.

The Gemara asks: With regard to one who engages in intercourse with a forbidden relative, how would they have acted to spare the accused from execution? Abaye and Rava both say that they would have asked the witnesses: Did you see the intercourse, like a brush entering into a tube? Since witnesses rarely witness the act that closely, one could claim that the testimony is incomplete. The Gemara asks: And concerning the Rabbis, who disagree with Rabbi Tarfon and Rabbi Akiva, how would they have adjudicated that case? The Gemara answers: They hold in accordance with the statement of Shmuel, as Shmuel says: In cases involving adulterers one can testify and convict them from when they will appear as adulterers, without any need for him to witness the act in graphic detail.

We will return to you, "How are witnesses"

MISHNA: These are the people who are exiled: Anyone who kills a person unintentionally. Whether one is liable to be exiled depends on the particular circumstances of the case: If one was rolling a roller to smooth the covering of mortar that he applied to seal his roof and the roller fell upon a person and killed him, or if one was lowering a barrel from the roof and it fell on a person and killed him, or if he was descending a ladder and he fell on a person and killed him, in all of these cases, he is exiled. But if one was pulling a roller toward him and it fell from his hands upon a person and killed him, or if one was lifting a barrel and the rope was severed and it fell upon a person and killed him,

Traduction : The William Davidson digital edition of the Koren Noé Talmud, with commentary by Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz.

Makot 7a discusses disqualified witnesses related to loan guarantors and examines Sanhedrin rules for executing a fugitive already sentenced to death.