Study Sanhedrin folio 9B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
מה יעשו שני אחים ואחד, שראו באחד שהרג את הנפש?
If this were not to be so, what should two brothers and one other person do, if they saw someone kill another person? If the mere fact that they saw the event invalidates the testimony, then no one can ever be tried for a transgression committed in the presence of relatives. If one may decide whether or not he will be a witness, one of the brothers may join with the third person in warning the potential transgressor and, after that, constitute a pair of valid witnesses. Similarly, the Mishnah is understood as discussing a case in which a betrothed woman committed adultery, and of the 3 witnesses, two were brothers. If one of the brothers refrained from warning her, the remaining two witnesses may still testify against her, according to R' Yehuda HaNasi. In this situation, the case must be tried by 23 judges. According to R' Yosei the case may be tried by 3 judges, because with regard to capital law, the two brothers invalidate the testimony merely by seeing the event together.
ואיבעית אימא: כגון שהתרו בה אחרים, ולא התרו בה עדים. וקמיפלגי בפלוגתא דרבי יוסי ורבנן, דתנן: רבי יוסי אומר, לעולם אינו נהרג עד שיהו פי שני עדיו מתרין בו, שנאמר: ״על פי שנים עדים״.
And if you wish, say instead: The Mishnah discusses a case where others warned her, and the witnesses themselves did not warn her. And R' Meir and the Rabbis disagree with regard to the issue that is the subject of the dispute between R' Yosei and the Rabbis. As we learned in a Mishnah (Makkot 6b), R' Yosei says: A defendant is never executed unless the mouths of his two witnesses are those who warn him, as it is stated: “At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of 3 witnesses, should he that is to die be put to death” (Deuteronomy 17:6). The verse’s emphasis on the phrase “at the mouth of” teaches that the witnesses must issue the warning themselves. R' Meir may agree with R' Yosei that the woman cannot be executed if others gave the warning. Therefore the trial of the defamer needs only 3 judges, whereas the Rabbis in the Mishnah agree with the Rabbis in Makkot who disagree with R' Yosei. Since she may be tried for adultery, the case requires 23 judges.