Sanhedrin 18a — the Talmud in English

A city in which there are

two hundred seventy-seven

residents is fit to have a Sanhedrin.

This is because he holds in accordance with Rabbi Neḥemya. And he adds another forty-seven to his number. This is so that they will be able to add judges when they divide into twelve who find him liable and eleven who find him not liable. [At that point, they add two more judges. If these two find him liable, there will then be fourteen who find him liable as opposed to eleven who find him not liable, and the ruling will be decided for liability. And if these two find him not liable, there will then be thirteen who find him not liable as opposed to twelve who find him liable, and the ruling will be decided in his favor. But if these two judges divide, with one finding him liable and the other finding him not liable, and there is no decision for liability on the basis of two judges, nor for acquittal on the basis of one, they add two more judges. If they again divide, they add two more, and so on, but no more than forty-seven, until they total seventy together with the original judges, since a Sanhedrin may not have more than seventy judges. Therefore, Rabbi adds forty-seven to Rabbi Neḥemya’s calculation.]

The Gemara raises an objection:

But wasn’t it taught

in another beraita:

Rabbi says: Two hundred seventy

and eight?

The Gemara answers:

It is not difficult.

There is no contradiction between the two beraitot.

This

the first beraita, which holds that another forty-seven are added, is in accordance with Rabbi

Yehuda,

who holds that the Sanhedrin consists of seventy judges. Whereas

this

beraita that we learned is in accordance with

the Rabbis,

who hold that the Sanhedrin consists of seventy-one judges; therefore, another forty-eight are added.

The Gemara now cites a beraita that enumerates the officers whom Moses appointed following Jethro’s advice.

The Sages taught:

It is written in the Torah that Jethro advised Moses: “And you shall appoint over them officers of thousands, officers of hundreds, officers of fifties, and officers of tens.”

Officers of thousands

means one officer for every thousand people. Since the Children of Israel numbered six hundred thousand men on foot, there were

six hundred

officers of thousands.

Officers of hundreds

numbered

six thousand.

Officers of fifties

numbered

twelve thousand.

Officers of tens

numbered

six myriad

sixty thousand.

It follows

that there were

judges of Israel

—

seventy myriad and eight thousand six hundred.

We shall return to you, chapter “Civil Laws.”

Mishna:

High Priest -

judges,

they seat him as a judge on the Sanhedrin in order to judge other people,

and

likewise the Sanhedrin

judge him,

for a transgression that he committed.

And likewise, if the High Priest knows testimony concerning others, he

testifies

concerning them,

and

likewise others

testify against him,

against him.

A High Priest

performs halitza

with the wife of his brother, when his brother dies without children, in order to permit her to marry outside,

and halitza is performed with his wife

if the High Priest dies without children, his brother performs halitza with his wife,

and

likewise

his wife is performed yibbum with.

But he,

the High Priest,

does not perform yibbum

with the wife of his brother who falls to him for yibbum,

because he is forbidden to [marry] a widow.

The Torah wrote in the section concerning the High Priest [Leviticus 21]: “He shall not become impure for his father or for his mother, and he shall not leave the Sanctuary.” And Rabbi Meir expounds that the Torah’s intention is to say, “He shall not leave his sanctity,” meaning that he should distance himself from what is unbecoming, so that he not come to impurity, and even at the funeral of his father and mother he should make a distancing and a safeguard so that he not touch corpse impurity. Whereas Rabbi Judah expounds the verse “and he shall not leave the Sanctuary” to mean that the High Priest does not accompany his relatives who have died at all. [And according to the Gemara’s conclusion, these expositions are merely an asmachta, and the prohibition is a rabbinic concern, both according to Rabbi Meir and according to Rabbi Judah.]

If a dead person dies to him,

one of his seven relatives, namely: his father, his mother, his son, his daughter, his brother, his sister, or his wife,

he does not go out after the bier

to accompany them like an ordinary person, but only with a distancing, that he goes out after them in this manner:

they are concealed,

the bearers of the bier leave this alley and enter another alley, and then they are concealed from him, for he cannot see them,

and

then

he is revealed

in this alley from which the bearers of the bier have already departed.

They are revealed and he is concealed,

whenever the bearers of the bier are revealed in an alley, he must be concealed from them, and he does not enter it until they have passed from it into another alley.

And

in this manner, in which he has identifying signs in the city’s alleys , he

goes out with them as far as the entrance of the city gate.

From there onward he does not go out, because he has no identifying signs there for the distancing. These are

the words of Rabbi Meir.

Rabbi Judah says: He does not leave the Sanctuary, because it is stated: “And he shall not leave the Sanctuary.”

This law refers to the High Priest’s seven relatives, because there is a concern that, from the intensity of his bitterness over their death, he will come to touch the dead. But he does go out after the bier of others who are not his relatives.

In the time of the Mishna, it was customary to practice mourning when they returned from the burial of the dead, for the people would pass before the mourners, who stood and received words of consolation. And the Mishna comes to say that the High Priest does not go in confusion with all the people in order to console the mourners, but goes in a dignified manner.

And when he consoles

the

others, the way of

the custom of

all the people, they pass one after another,

in order to say words of consolation to the mourner.

And

when the High Priest,

the appointed one,

the deputy of the priests,

would place himself between him and the people.

The appointed one would walk on his right, and the people on his left, and he would be in the middle.

And when he is consoled by others,

when a dead person dies to him, and the people come to his house and form a row to console him,

all the people say to him: “We are your atonement,”

may you be atoned for through us. That is, would that we were in your place, for everything worthy of coming upon you.

And he says to them: “May you be blessed from Heaven.”

But he is forbidden to eat the first meal of his mourning from his own [food], and his neighbors and acquaintances bring him food; this is called the se’udat havra’a, and it is eaten while sitting on the ground, according to the custom of mourners. But the High Priest does not sit on the ground, because of his honor; rather, his friends, the people of the meal, sit on the ground, to show that they grieve together with his grief and mourn together with his mourning, while he reclines honorably on a bench.

And when they provide him with the havra’a meal

the se’udat havra’a -

all the people

who come to console him

recline on the ground, while he reclines on the bench.

And now the Mishna continues with the laws of a king and the law of kingship until the end of the chapter.

The king -

does not judge,

they do not seat him on the Sanhedrin to judge others

, and they do not judge him

the Sanhedrin does not judge him.

He does not testify

about others,

and they do not testify against him.

And likewise

he does not perform halitza

with the wife of his brother, because it is degrading for him to come to the court and for his brother’s wife to spit before him.

And halitza is not performed with his wife,

when the king dies without children, the king’s brother does not remove her through halitza, since they do not perform yibbum with his wife, because one does not marry the widow of a king; therefore the king’s brother also does not perform halitza with his wife.

He does not perform yibbum

with the wife of his brother, because it is degrading for him to rise for the name of his brother,

and yibbum is not performed with his wife,

as explained, that one does not marry the widow of a king.

Rabbi Judah says: If he wishes

the king to waive his honor

to perform halitza or yibbum -

may he be remembered for good, for

he waives his honor in order to fulfill the mitzva of yibbum or halitza.

The Sages said to him

to Rabbi Judah:

We do not listen to him

we do not agree with him, because “a king who waives his honor—his honor is not waived.”

And one does not marry the widow

of the king, or his divorcee.

Rabbi Judah says:

A commoner does not marry the widow of a king, but

the king marries the widow of a king. For so we find with David, who married

the

widow of Saul, as it is stated [

Samuel II 12, where the prophet Nathan said to David]: “So said the Lord, God of Israel: I anointed you as king over Israel,

and I gave you the house of your master and the wives of your master into your bosom.”

Thus it was permitted for a king to marry the widow of another king.

And in the Gemara it will be explained what the Sages answered Rabbi Judah concerning his proof.

Gemara:

We learned in our Mishna:

A High Priest judges.

The Gemara asks:

Is it obvious!?

What novelty is there in this, and why should it enter one’s mind that the High Priest does not judge?

And the Gemara answers: Indeed, there is no novelty in this statement; rather, the novelty is in the continuation of the Mishna, which says

“they judge him,”

and this

was necessary for him,

the tanna needed to inform us of it, because it might enter one’s mind to say that one should refrain from judging him because of the affront to his honor when he is brought to judgment before a court.

The Gemara asks:

This,

this law that they judge him,

is also obvious,

for

if we do not judge him,

if they do not judge him,

how can he judge!?

How can he judge others if they themselves do not judge him,

and

behold,

it is written [

Zephaniah 2]: “

Gather yourselves and gather,”

search your deeds, as one gathers straw, and afterward search the deeds of others.

And Reish Lakish said: Adorn yourself

first,

and afterward adorn others.

And if so, if they do not judge him, how will he judge others?

The Gemara answers:

Rather,

therefore the Mishna informs us that a High Priest judges and is judged, because

since

incidentally

it wished to teach

later in the Mishna,

“a king does not judge and they do not judge him,”

therefore

the tanna also taught: “A High

Priest judges and is judged.”

To say that the law of a High Priest differs from the law of a king.

The Gemara gives another answer: The Mishna comes to inform us that if he transgressed a prohibition, that is, a transgression for which one is liable to lashes, he is judged by three , like an ordinary person. And there is a novelty in this—as will be explained.

And if you wish, say: This,

this law

it comes to teach us,

the Mishna comes to inform us,

as it was taught: “A High Priest who killed a person,

if he killed

intentionally -

he is killed. Unintentionally -

he is exiled

to a city of refuge.

And one who transgresses

a

positive commandment and a negative commandment [

the Gemara will explain].

He is like an ordinary person in all his matters.

And now the Gemara explains the words of the beraita, and likewise the novelty in the words of the Mishna that “they judge him.”

We learned in a beraita: “

Intentionally he is killed.”

The Gemara asks:

It is obvious,

what is the novelty in this?

The Gemara answers: Indeed, there is no novelty in it; rather, the law that

“unintentionally he is exiled” was necessary for him,

it needed to inform us of this, and incidentally to the law of the unintentional case, it taught the law of the intentional case.

The Gemara asks:

This,

that unintentionally he is exiled

is also obvious,

and what is the novelty in this?

The Gemara answers: This is not obvious, because

it was necessary,

the tanna needed to inform us of this, because it might enter one’s mind that a High Priest is not exiled, since we learned that a High Priest who killed does not leave the city of refuge forever, as will be explained; therefore it is possible that he also does not go into exile there.

It might enter your mind to say,

I might think and say:

Since it is written

in the section concerning one who unintentionally kills a person

“and he shall dwell there until the death of the High Priest,”

therefore

let me say,

it may be said:

Anyone who has a remedy through returning,

an ordinary murderer who has a remedy to leave the city of refuge through the death of the High Priest -

let him go into exile,

he initially goes into exile. But

one who has no remedy through returning,

one who has no remedy for leaving there, namely the High Priest,

let him not go into exile,

he should not initially go into exile, because the Torah limited it by saying: until the death of the High Priest.

Now the Gemara brings the law that a High Priest who unintentionally killed and went into exile has no remedy for leaving the city of refuge:

For

behold,

we learned

we learned in our Mishna: