When witnesses come to offer testimony in a capital case, they are warned about the gravity of their task: A person’s life depends on what they say. There are serious implications for the witnesses as well, because they will be among the executioners. Deuteronomy 17:7 teaches: “The hand of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people.” A mishnah on today’s daf explains how this works in the case of stoning:
The place of stoning from which the condemned man is pushed to his death is a platform twice the height of an ordinary person. One of the witnesses who testified against him pushes him down by the hips … and if he dies from his fall to the ground, the obligation to stone the transgressor is fulfilled. And if the condemned man does not die from his fall, the second witness takes the stone that has been prepared for this task and places it on his chest. And if he dies with the casting of this first stone, the obligation to stone the transgressor is fulfilled. And if he does not die with the casting of this stone, then the stoning is completed by all of the people.
Contrary to what many might imagine, execution by stoning is no free-for-all. The condemned is first walked onto a high platform — approximately twice the height of an average person. Then, one of the witnesses pushes them off so that they fall to the ground. If the fall does not kill them, the second witness pushes a large stone off the platform so it falls on top of them. If that does not kill them, those who have gathered to witness the execution complete the execution by raining down more stones until the execution is complete.
Note that the mishnah states that execution is an obligation, fulfilling a commandment of the Torah. And it is also an obligation that rests initially on the witnesses whose testimony brought about the conviction.
The Gemara brings a challenge to the stoning protocol described in the Mishnah based on Bava Kamma 50 which holds a person liable for damages caused by an open pit that is ten handbreadths deep because a fall of that distance can lead to death. If ten handbreadths — less than the height of an average person — can lead to a deadly fall, the Gemara asks, why is stoning done from a significantly higher platform? In response, Rav Nahman cites Rabba bar Avuh, who teaches:
Even with regard to a condemned man, select a good death for them.
While a person might die from a fall of ten handbreaths, there is a reasonable chance they will not. For the purposes of execution, a higher platform makes it more likely the condemned will die from the fall and not suffer while waiting for the second witness to crush them with a boulder or, should it be necessary, the crowd to complete the stoning.
Given that logic, why not build an even higher platform to ensure the condemned dies from the fall, to minimize suffering? We don’t built a higher platform, says the Gemara, because that would only serve to disfigure the body and this would no longer be considered a “good death.”
We now have two guiding principles for a good death: minimizing suffering and minimizing disfiguration of the body. One could argue that there is no such thing as a good death, especially one that is carried out by the courts. And as we progress through Tractate Sanhedrin, we will increasingly understand that the rabbis did what they could to reduce the circumstances in which capital punishments were actually meted out to nil. But understanding that sometimes executions will still sometimes take place, at least theoretically, the rabbis thought it important they not be vicious spectacles and set guidelines for what they considered a good death.
Read all of Sanhedrin 45 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on January 31, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
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