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Sanhedrin 2a

סנהדרין ב׳ ע״א

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

Open Sanhedrin 2a in Gemara Clarity

Topic

How many judges each kind of case needs, from three up to seventy-one, and the פסוקים behind the court sizes

Overview

The opening משנה of מסכת סנהדרין lists how many judges are needed for each kind of case. Money cases, damages and fines need three judges, with disputes about מוציא שם רע and מכות, where some say twenty-three. Calendar decisions, court ceremonies like עריפת עגלה and חליצה, and appraisals of holy items also need three, but land and people need nine plus a כהן. Capital cases need twenty-three, and this includes animals that are put to death. Some matters need the great court of seventy-one: trying a שבט, a נביא השקר or a כהן גדול, going to a מלחמת הרשות, expanding ירושלים, setting up local courts, and declaring an עיר הנדחת. The משנה then proves the sizes of the courts from פסוקים: seventy elders plus משה make seventy-one, and two groups of ten make twenty. It begins to explain the last three judges with the rule that convicting needs a majority of two, and this continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

מַתְנִי׳ דִּינֵי מָמוֹנוֹת – בִּשְׁלֹשָׁה,

MISHNA: Monetary cases are judged by three judges.

גְּזֵילוֹת וַחֲבָלוֹת – בִּשְׁלֹשָׁה,

Robbery and injury cases are judged by three.

נֶזֶק וַחֲצִי נֶזֶק,

Full damage and half damage,

תַּשְׁלוּמֵי כֶפֶל

double payment

The steps (27)

  1. StatementMoney and damage cases need three judges
  2. Statementרבי מאיר: rape, seduction and defamation cases need three
  3. StatementThe חכמים: a defamation case needs twenty-three
  4. StatementLashes: three judges, or twenty-three according to רבי ישמעאל
  5. StatementAdding a day to the month or a month to the year needs three judges
  6. Statementרבן שמעון בן גמליאל: a leap year is decided in three stages
  7. StatementLaying hands on elders and the heifer ritual: three or five judges
  8. Statementחליצה and מיאון are done before three
  9. StatementAppraising holy produce, consecrated items and movable valuations
  10. StatementLand and people are appraised by nine plus a priest
  11. StatementCapital cases need twenty-three judges
  12. StatementAnimals involved in bestiality are judged by twenty-three
  13. StatementAn ox that killed a person is judged by twenty-three
  14. StatementDispute over wild animals that killed
  15. StatementTrials that only the court of seventy-one can judge
  16. StatementNational decisions that need the court of seventy-one
  17. StatementDeclaring an idolatrous city needs seventy-one
  18. StatementLimits on declaring an idolatrous city
  19. StatementThe two sizes of סנהדרין
  20. ProofSource for 71: seventy elders plus משה
  21. Statementרבי יהודה: the great court has seventy
  22. ProofSource for the small court: a judging group and a saving group make twenty
  23. ProofAn עדה is ten: the מרגלים
  24. QuestionWhere do the three extra judges come from?
  25. ResponseDo not follow the majority to convict
  26. ChallengeWhy does the פסוק also say 'incline after a majority'?
  27. ResolutionAcquit by a majority of one, convict by a majority of two