We learned earlier in Tractate Sanhedrin that judges do not have to be rabbis or trained professionals. Nonetheless, there are restrictions on who can judge a capital case. A recent mishnah stated the following lineage requirements:
…not all are fit to judge capital cases, except priests, Levites and Israelites who can marry a priest.
Today’s daf expands this answer, suggesting that it is not only lineage that matters in determining who can judge a capital case:
Rav Yosef taught: Just as the court is clean in justice, so too it is clean of any blemish. Ameimar said: What is the biblical source for this? “You are all fair, my love; and there is no blemish in you.” (Song of Songs 4:7) Perhaps this refers to an actual physical blemish (rather than a blemish of lineage)? Rav Acha bar Yaakov said: The verse states, “Then the Lord said to Moses: Gather for me 70 of Israel’s elders of whom have experience as elders and officers of the people, and bring them to the Tent of Meeting and let them take their place there with you … they shall share the burden of the people with you, and you shall not bear it alone.” (Numbers 11:16–17) — “with you” means with similarity to you.
The Talmud adds a requirement to that of the mishnah: Not only must a judge in a capital case have a particular lineage, they must also be whole in body, like Moses.
Further on, we explore the law of the stubborn and rebellious son (Deuteronomy 21:18–21) who is, somewhat shockingly, stoned to death for this crime. In the Jerusalem Talmud, we find this statement about what qualifies someone to judge such a case:
Just as one explains for one’s father and mother (that one cannot be convicted as a rebellious child if one’s parents have any physical blemishes), so one explains for the elders of the court, as it is said, “They shall go out” — to exclude those who limp; “and say” — to exclude those who are mute; “our hands did not spill” — to exclude those with one arm; “and our eyes did not see” — to exclude blind people. The verse teaches that just as the elders of the court must be unblemished morally, so too they must be unblemished physically.
In this passage, the rabbis note that, just as with the parents who bring a child to the court as a stubborn and rebellious child cannot themselves have physical blemishes, judges (in a capital case) must also be free of physical blemishes. The verse used as proof of who is qualified to judge comes from Deuteronomy 21:7, describing the ritual of the eglah arufah, the calf of the broken neck. When a body is found between two cities and the murderer is unknown, the priests and the court must bring a sacrifice to atone for the sin that occurred on their watch. Deuteronomy 21:7 requires a statement from the elders declaring their innocence in the matter — and the language is used by the rabbis of the Jerusalem Talmud to infer that judges in these cases must be free of specific physical disabilities: a limp, a missing limb, blindness, muteness. The ritual, essentially, asks the elders to take on and atone for the guilt of a societal failure, the murder of an innocent person.
This focus on physical and genealogical “purity” for judges in capital cases doesn’t ring true or fair to many of us today. We understand that a person’s ancestors and physical capabilities do not necessarily negatively affect their ability to judge fairly. Yet, there is another lesson we can draw from these texts. Rabbi Jacob M. Lesin, in his commentary HaMeor ShebaTorah, connects this requirement for judges of capital cases to fulfilling any commandment: “We learn that only through the physicality of the body are we able to fulfill the instructions of the Torah, and thus the forces of our soul can participate…” No human is perfect, especially in comparison to God. And yet we rely on our physical senses to fulfill God’s commandments. Ritual is very dependent on how one experiences the world through one’s various senses, and this is true for judgment as well. One must take everything into account to deliver a just verdict: sights and sounds, emotions and non-verbal indications — everything helps one to form an opinion of the truth.
Judaism is often focused on intellectual understanding, so this is an important reminder. The world as we experience it is a physical world, which we understand not just through reason or intellect but also through our senses. Those senses, whatever are available to us and to whatever extent, can be used in the service of God: in determining the truth, in fulfilling commandments or in understanding our world on a deeper level.
Read all of Sanhedrin 36 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on January 22, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
Help us keep Jewish knowledge accessible to millions of people around the world.
Your donation to My Jewish Learning fuels endless journeys of Jewish discovery. With your help, My Jewish Learning can continue to provide nonstop opportunities for learning, connection and growth.
