Study Sanhedrin folio 53A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
בשלמא לרבי יונתן, כדקא מפרש רבי טעמא. אלא לרבי יאשיה, ממאי דאיכא חנק בעולם? אימא סייף!
Granted, according to R' Yonatan it is clear the punishment for adultery is strangulation, in the manner that R' Yehuda HaNasi explains the reason for his opinion. But according to R' Yoshiya, from where is it derived that there is a punishment of execution by strangulation in the world, i.e., in halakha, at all? Since this type of capital punishment is not mentioned in the Torah explicitly, say that decapitation by the sword is the least severe type, as it is mentioned in the Torah.
אמר רבא: ארבע מיתות גמרא גמירי להו.
Rava said: The 4 types of the death penalty are learned as a tradition. There is no question as to the types of capital punishment that exist in halakha. Rather, the question is which type of execution is meted out as punishment for which sins.
מאי ״לא מפני שהיא קלה״? קמיפלגי בפלוגתא דרבי שמעון ורבנן.
The Talmud asks: What is meant by R' Yonatan’s statement: It is not because strangulation is the most lenient type of capital punishment? The Talmud answers: At the root of the matter, R' Yonatan and R' Yoshiya disagree with regard to the issue that is the subject of the dispute between R' Shimon and the Rabbis, i.e., whether strangulation or decapitation is the least severe type of execution. Consequently, R' Yonatan does not employ the reasoning that strangulation is the least severe.
אמר ליה רבי זירא לאביי: שאר הנסקלין דלא כתיב בהו סקילה, דגמרי מאוב וידעוני, במאי גמרי? ב״מות יומתו״ גמרי, או ב״דמיהם בם״ גמרי?
§ R' Zeira said to Abaye: With regard to the rest of those transgressors, other than necromancers and sorcerers, who are stoned to death, with regard to whom stoning is not explicitly written in the Torah because their punishment is derived via a verbal analogy from that of a necromancer and a sorcerer, about which the verse states: “They should be put to death, they should stone them with stones, their blood should be upon them” (Leviticus 20:27); through what verbal analogy is their punishment derived? Is it derived from the phrase “they should be put to death,” or is it derived from the phrase “their blood should be upon them”?