Aligned sentence by sentence
, .
Likewise these two — and they are like the other transgressions with respect to the principle of rescue — and Scripture wrote "murderer" and made mention [of these cases] in order to exclude an animal, idolatry, and the Sabbath, as we have noted.
.
The meaning of this rescue is that it is an obligation imposed upon us to deliver this pursued person from the hand of the pursuer who seeks to kill him or to make him commit a transgression with him, by any means possible, even by killing the pursuer, and even though the pursuer has not yet committed the offense.
, .
This is the meaning of "[they may be saved] at the cost of their lives" — that is, at the cost of the life of the pursuer.
.
But once [the offender] has acted and committed the transgression, it is not permitted to kill him except by a court and witnesses, and according to the procedures whose explanation has already been set out.
, .
It is not so, however, with one whom we see pursuing an animal, or intending to profane the Sabbath, or [to commit] idolatry: here we are entitled to prevent him and to restrain him by every possible means short of killing him, for [killing him] is not permitted until he transgresses in the presence of witnesses and after due warning, whereupon the court may put him to death.
.
And so it is with the other transgressions apart from the forbidden sexual unions and murder, in accordance with what we have explained.
[]
Mishnah 1
, .
*"If he set [an animal] upon him"* — this means that he incited that animal against the man by hand or by voice and let it loose upon him.
, .
*"And he made it bite"* — that he opened the mouth of that animal and fixed its teeth into his body.
.
The law is in accordance with the Sages in all of this.
[]
Mishnah 2
, .
The dissent of R. Shimon bears only upon the inference drawn from the first clause, namely the statement, "If he intended to kill the animal and killed the man, he is exempt." The inference from this is that if he intended to strike one person and struck another person, he is liable.
.
R. Shimon dissented on this point and said: even if he intended to kill this one and killed that one, he is exempt.
.
The law is in accordance with R. Shimon.
[]
Mishnah 3
, .
The statement of R. Yehudah bears only upon an implied premise. That premise is: if a pebble or a stone went out from among many people and killed [someone], and it is not known who threw it, all of them are exempt — and in this there is no dispute.
, .
But [as for] an ox that killed and whose case was concluded [for execution] and that then became mixed in with other oxen, they stone all of them; and R. Yehudah dissents in this clause and says, they confine them in a vaulted cell.
. .
The law is neither in accordance with R. Yehudah nor with R. Shimon.
[]
Mishnah 4
, , , .
His first statement concerns a person who committed a transgression and whose case was concluded for a lighter mode of execution, and who afterward committed a transgression carrying a graver mode of execution. One might have supposed that he should be judged by the lighter mode, since he is [already] a condemned man, and no regard need be paid to what he did afterward; so [the Mishnah] informs us that he is judged by the graver mode.
, , , .
The description of the "first attachment" is as I shall set out: for example, that his mother-in-law was [also] his father's wife and he had relations with her — inasmuch as she is his mother-in-law he incurs burning, and inasmuch as she is his father's wife he incurs stoning.
, , .
If she became his mother-in-law before her father married her [to his own father], he is judged by burning; but if his father married her first, and after she had become his father's wife [his father] married her daughter [to him] so that she became his mother-in-law, he is judged by stoning. Reckon the rest by this.
.
The law is not in accordance with R. Yose.
[]
Mishnah 5
, .
*"The vaulted cell"* (*kippah*) — a vault constructed within prisons, whose height is exactly the stature of the man, so that he has no room within it to stretch out or to lie down.
, , .
This of which we have spoken here [applies where] he was flogged and repeated [the offense] — [a case of] the flogging [incurred] for *karet*, and in that very same offense, such as eating forbidden fat time after time; but not [for] distinct [offenses each carrying] *karet*.
.
For everyone who incurs *karet* alone is given lashes, as we have already mentioned, and we shall set out its basis further on.
.
As for the lashes [incurred] for a [mere] negative commandment, he is flogged each time he disobeys and is then released, even a thousand times.
, , , .
His statement *"not through [the requisite] witnesses"* means: not through testimony by which he would incur the death penalty — that is, that the testimony should not stand up, by reason of any of the factors that nullify execution on the basis of that testimony even when it is true, such as a flaw in the warning, or doubts that arose in the examinations and interrogations, and the like.
.
Everyone who is liable to the vaulted cell is given scant bread and meager water until his strength fails and his body wastes away, and afterward they feed him barley until his belly bursts.
[]
Mishnah 6
, , . , .
*"The flagon"* (*kasvah*) — a service vessel, [the word being] derived from "the flagons (*qesavot*) of the libation" (Numbers 4:7). *"And one who curses by an enchanter's name"* — this means that he blesses the [Divine] Name by the name of an idolatrous deity.
, .
*"And one who has relations with an Aramean woman"* — that he has relations with the daughter of idolaters publicly, before ten Israelites or more, and at the very moment of the act, under duress [of circumstance], as in the affair of Pinchas (Numbers 25:7–8).
, , .
But after he has separated [from her], or if it was not in an assembly of Israelites, or if she was not an idolatress, it is not permitted to kill him;
.
yet he is liable to *karet* for [relations with] the daughter of an idolater, even though this is not stated in the Torah nor counted among the [enumerated] instances of *karet* — rather it is transmitted [by tradition] and is made clear in Scripture, in the verse "and has married the daughter of a foreign god — may the Lord cut off (*yakhret*) the man who does this" (Malachi 2:11–12).
.
They have further made clear that one who has relations with a gentile woman incurs numerous floggings, but all of them are by rabbinic ordinance.
, .
If the zealot asks us whether he may strike him down or not, then — even if it be at the very moment of the act — we do not [so] instruct him; yet if he assaulted and killed him, there is no penalty upon him.
, , .
Likewise, if the one having relations overpowered and killed the zealot in order to deliver himself from his hand, no [penalty of] death falls upon him, for [the zealot] is "pursuing him to kill him," and the Law established the ruling permitting his killing only in the manner described.
, .
God said, "and the outsider who draws near shall be put to death" (Numbers 1:51): R. Akiva says, [this means] death by strangulation, while the Sages say, death at the hands of Heaven.
, , .
This death at the hands of Heaven is less [severe] than *karet*, for one liable to *karet* — the penalty remains upon him after death, as we shall explain in the chapter following this one, whereas one liable to [judicial] death, when he dies, is forgiven.
.
These persons liable to [judicial] death are likewise flogged by Torah law if the offense is established by witnesses and warning, exactly like those liable to *karet*, provided that their transgression be of a negative commandment.
, , , , , , , ,
Those liable to [judicial] death are: one who eats untithed produce (*tevel*); a priest who is ritually impure and ate ritually pure heave-offering (*terumah*); a non-priest who ate heave-offering; a non-priest who performed the [Temple] service; a [ritually] impure one who performed the service; one who immersed that day [but had not yet awaited nightfall] and performed the service; one lacking the [proper] vestments; one lacking [his required] atonement-offerings; and one who [served] without...