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Makkos 2a

מכות ב׳ ע״א

Makkot 2a

Learn Makkos 2a step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

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Topic

How עדים זוממין are punished: the opening cases of מסכת מכות (testifying that someone is a בן גרושה or must go to גלות), and why the משנה phrases its opening question as כיצד העדים נעשים זוממין

Overview

The משנה opens מכות with two cases of עדים זוממין, false witnesses proven wrong by a second pair. Normally such witnesses get exactly the punishment they tried to cause. Here they get forty lashes instead. In the first case they claimed a כהן is a בן גרושה or בן חלוצה. In the second they claimed someone must go to גלות. The גמרא asks why the משנה's heading speaks as if these were normal cases, and why a later משנה seems to say they are not זוממין at all. It answers that the תנא is continuing from the end of סנהדרין, which ended with an exception: 'there are OTHER זוממין' whose punishment is different. The גמרא then asks for the source of the בן גרושה rule. ריש לקיש learns it from the פסוק: 'to him' means not his children, and 'as he plotted' rules out a partial punishment. בר פדא learns it from a קל וחומר, and רבינא objects that his reasoning would cancel the whole law of עדים זוממין. The explanation of that objection continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

מַתְנִי׳ כֵּיצַד הָעֵדִים

MISHNA: How are witnesses

נַעֲשִׂים זוֹמְמִין?

rendered conspiring witnesses?

״מְעִידִין אָנוּ בְּאִישׁ פְּלוֹנִי

"We testify about so-and-so

שֶׁהוּא בֶּן גְּרוּשָׁה אוֹ בֶּן חֲלוּצָה״,

that he is the son of a divorcee or the son of a ḥalutza,"

The steps (12)

  1. Statementמשנה: False witnesses who claimed a כהן is a בן גרושה
  2. Statementמשנה: False witnesses who said someone must go into exile
  3. ChallengeThe question should be 'how are witnesses NOT made זוממין'
  4. ChallengeA later משנה implies these witnesses are not זוממין at all
  5. ResolutionThe תנא is continuing from the end of מסכת סנהדרין
  6. ResolutionThe משנה restated as a list of more exceptions
  7. QuestionAsking for the source
  8. Responseריש לקיש: 'to him' and not to his children
  9. ChallengeWhy not disqualify only the witness himself?
  10. ResolutionThe punishment must match exactly
  11. Responseבר פדא's קל וחומר
  12. Challengeרבינא: this would cancel all of הזמה