Study Sanhedrin folio 42B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
מתני׳ נגמר הדין, מוציאין אותו לסוקלו. בית הסקילה היה חוץ לבית דין, שנאמר: ״הוצא את המקלל״.
Mishnah: When the trial has ended in a guilty verdict and the condemned man has been sentenced to be stoned, he is taken out to be stoned. The place of stoning was outside the court and a little beyond it, as it is stated with regard to a blasphemer: “Take out him who has cursed to outside the camp, and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him” (Leviticus 24:14).
אחד עומד על פתח בית דין, והסודרין בידו, וסוס רחוק ממנו כדי שיהא רואהו. אומר אחד: ״יש ללמד עליו זכות״, הלה מניף בסודרין, והסוס רץ ומעמידן. ואפילו הוא אומר: ״יש לי ללמד על עצמי זכות״, מחזירין אותו, אפילו ארבע וחמש פעמים, ובלבד שיש ממש בדבריו.
One man stands at the entrance to the court, with cloths [vehasudarin] in his hand, and another man sits on a horse at a distance from him but where he can still see him. If one of the judges says: I can teach a reason to acquit him, the other, i.e., the man with the cloths, waves the cloths as a signal to the man on the horse, and the horse races off after the court agents who are leading the condemned man to his execution, and he stops them, and they wait until the court determines whether or not the argument has substance. And even if he, the condemned man himself, says: I can teach a reason to acquit myself, he is returned to the courthouse, even 4 or 5 times, provided that there is substance to his words.
גמ׳ ובית הסקילה חוץ לבית דין הוה, ותו לא? והא תניא: בית הסקילה היה חוץ לשלש מחנות.
Talmud: The Talmud asks: And was the place of stoning just outside the court and nothing more? Does it suffice that the place of execution is only a short distance from the court and no further? But isn’t it taught in a baraita: The place of stoning was outside the distance that is equivalent to the length of the 3 camps in the wilderness: The camp of the Shekhina, the camp of the Levites, and the camp of the Israelites. In Jerusalem there were 3 corresponding camps: The Temple with its courtyard, the Temple Mount, and the rest of the city. The distance in the wilderness outside of the 3 camps corresponds to a place outside the city walls and limits.