Makkot 22: How Administer Lashes

The rabbis complete their conversation regarding the number of lashes administered to a person who has transgressed many prohibitions in one grand action.  

A new Mishna teaches receiving lashes means receiving 39 lashes.  Rabbi Yehuda says that 40 lashes are administered, and that there is not an "extra" lash.  The lashes are evenly divided among three parts of the body, and the 40th lash is between the shoulder blades.  An estimation is made as to how many lashes the person can survive - and it is a number divisible by three.  If he is thought to survive 40 lashes but seems weak earlier, he is exempt.  He would have already have been humiliated enough.  However, if he was estimated to survive 18 lashes and is fine at 18, he is still exempt from the remaining lashes.  

The Gemara discusses the reasoning behind giving only 39 and not 40 lashes.  The directive was "b'mispar arbaim", the number followed by 40.  Rava says that most people are foolish for they stand for the Sefer Torah but do not stand for the wise Sages.  The Torah says 40 lashes and the rabbis say 39.  Rabbi Yehuda argues that one receives a full 40 lashes, with the final lash between the shoulders.  Rabbi Yitzchak adds that 39 lashes are for the sin while the last lash is to arouse G-d's love for him.  

We learn a new Mishna: if one transgresses something forbidden by two prohibitions, he receives the amount of the estimation if it was made for both prohibitions.  If the estimation was made for only one of his prohibitions, he receives that many lashes and then a second estimation is made and received after he recovers from that first number of lashes.

A third new Mishna teaches about how a person receives lashes.  He leans on a post and is tied there.  The overseer of the Beit Din tears his clothes until his chest is exposed.  The overseer stands on a rock holding two leather straps folded into four.  Two more straps of done skin are attached.  The handle of the whip is a handbreadth. The end of it wraps around the width of the person's back to reach his stomach.  One third of the lashes are applied to the stomach, and two thirds are on the back (Ritva says on the middle of the back, and Rambam says that one third are on each shoulder).  

The transgressor should be lashed with one hand at full strength.  If the transgressor dies, the overseer is exempt unless he applied an extra lash, in which case he is liable.  If the transgressor excretes urine or faces due to fear or pain, he is exempt for he has been humiliated.  Rabbi Yehuda says that a woman will be exempt for this reason, but a man is only exempt if he defecates.