Sanhedrin 52: Choking, Burning, Strangulation

Today's daf is particularly difficult to read.  It describes the critical steps of executions and the deaths of those sentenced to death.  Our daf presents these morbid description in a few distinct categories with a number of Mishnayot.

The rabbis note that each of these methods of execution are named mitzvot.  This is because they are commandments and thus good things to do.  Clearly the rabbis also have some discomfort with the descriptions of executions as positive things.  

A new Mishna teaches that for the mitzvah of burning, the person is placed in manure up to his knees so that he cannot easily escape.  A soft scarf covers a thicker scarf which are both placed around the person's neck.  Both ends are pulled until the person's mouth opens.  A wick is lit and thrown into the person's mouth which is meant to burn him/her from the inside.  Rabbi Yehuda suggests that tongs are used to force the person's mouth open to avoid accidental strangulation.  Rabbi Eliezer ben Rebbi Tzadok says that there was a case where a bat kohen was burned by being surrounded by bundles of twigs.  The Sages say that her beit din must have been uneducated.

The Gemara describes the wick as a long, thin apparatus made of molten lead based on a gezera shava.  The rabbis begin a discussion about burning the soul rather than the body.  

The rabbis speak of Nadav and Avid walking behind Moshe and Aharon.  When Nadav asked his brother, When will they die and let us lead the generation?  G-d answered, saying that we will see who dies first!  Rav Pappa teaches that this is similar to the notion that many old camels carry the skins of younger camels (who died because they were not trained to bear such a burden).  Chachamim are also see as golden or silver flasks when he learns secular issues.  When seeing the Sage benefit from him, the younger person is like a broken earthenware flask which is irreplaceable. 

The rabbis debate whether or not the several cases of women burned by bundles of twigs were actually fulfilling the mitzvah of execution by burning.  The rabbis discount any witness statements that were remembered from when the witness was a minor.

A new Mishna focuses on beheading.  It states that a person is beheaded from a standing position like in the kingdoms.  Rabbi Yehuda says that this is disgraceful and that instead we rest his head on a block and cut it with a chopping knife.  Perhaps this is the most disgraceful death, for a person is killed like a piece of meat, some suggest.  But the Torah recommends using a sword, so this execution should be done while standing.  The rabbis consider whether a person who killed a slave (and more so, a jew) should be treated with any leniency.  The rabbis speak of killing someone from the back of the neck.

A new Mishna teaches us about the mitzvah of choking:  s/he is inserted into manure up to his/her knees.  A strong scarf is covered with a soft scarf and both are placed around his/her neck.  The scars is pulled from either side until the person dies.

The Gemara begins by using words in the Mishna to exclude a minor, the wife of a minor. and a minor wife from this mitzvah.  To the end of today's daf, the rabbis discuss whether choking is truly the least severe method of execution.