Sanhedrin 81A

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Text Excerpt

לא תימא ליה לאבוך הכי, דתניא: הרי שהיה אביו עובר על דברי תורה, לא יאמר לו: ״אבא, עברת על דברי תורה״, אלא אומר לו: ״אבא, כך כתיב בתורה״. סוף סוף היינו הך! אלא אומר לו: ״אבא, מקרא כתוב בתורה כך הוא״.

Do not speak to your father in that manner, where you tell him directly that he is mistaken. Rather, raise the matter in a circumspect manner, as it is taught in a baraita: In a case where one’s father was violating Torah matters he should not say to him: Father, you violated Torah matters. Rather, he should say to him: Father, it is written so in the Torah. The Talmud asks: Ultimately, isn’t this formulation identical to that previous formulation? In both cases he embarrasses his father. Rather, say to him: Father, there is a verse written in the Torah and this is what it says. Tell him the halakha or the verse in a way in which it is not obvious that it relates to the action that his father performed.

מתני׳ מי שנתחייב בשתי מיתות בית דין ⁠– נידון בחמורה. עבר עבירה שנתחייב שתי מיתות ⁠– נידון בחמורה. רבי יוסי אומר: נידון בזיקה הראשונה שבאה עליו.

Mishnah: One who is liable to be executed with two different court-imposed death penalties, as he violated two different capital transgressions, is sentenced to the more severe form of execution. If one violated one transgression for which he is liable to receive two death penalties, e.g., if one had sex with his mother-in-law, who is also a married woman, he is sentenced to the more severe form of execution. R' Yosei says: He is sentenced to the form of execution that he is liable to receive due to the first relationship that came upon him, i.e., if she was his mother-in-law before she was married, he is executed by burning; if she was married before she was his mother-in-law, he is punished by strangulation.

Text data via Sefaria: William Davidson Edition - English and William Davidson Edition - Vocalized Aramaic, CC-BY-NC; edition provenance: Koren. Display terminology has been modernized for readability.