Commentary for Sanhedrin 7:2
מִצְוַת הַנִּשְׂרָפִין, הָיוּ מְשַׁקְּעִין אוֹתוֹ בַזֶּבֶל עַד אַרְכֻּבּוֹתָיו וְנוֹתְנִין סוּדָר קָשָׁה לְתוֹךְ הָרַכָּה וְכוֹרֵךְ עַל צַוָּארוֹ. זֶה מוֹשֵׁךְ אֶצְלוֹ וְזֶה מוֹשֵׁךְ אֶצְלוֹ עַד שֶׁפּוֹתֵחַ אֶת פִּיו, וּמַדְלִיק אֶת הַפְּתִילָה וְזוֹרְקָהּ לְתוֹךְ פִּיו וְיוֹרֶדֶת לְתוֹךְ מֵעָיו וְחוֹמֶרֶת אֶת בְּנֵי מֵעָיו. רַבִּי יְהוּדָה אוֹמֵר, אַף הוּא אִם מֵת בְּיָדָם לֹא הָיוּ מְקַיְּמִין בּוֹ מִצְוַת שְׂרֵפָה, אֶלָּא פוֹתְחִין אֶת פִּיו בִּצְבָת שֶׁלֹּא בְטוֹבָתוֹ וּמַדְלִיק אֶת הַפְּתִילָה וְזוֹרְקָהּ לְתוֹךְ פִּיו וְיוֹרֶדֶת לְתוֹךְ מֵעָיו וְחוֹמֶרֶת אֶת בְּנֵי מֵעָיו. אָמַר רַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר בֶּן צָדוֹק, מַעֲשֶׂה בְּבַת כֹּהֵן אַחַת שֶׁזִּנְּתָה, וְהִקִּיפוּהָ חֲבִילֵי זְמוֹרוֹת וּשְׂרָפוּהָ. אָמְרוּ לוֹ, מִפְּנֵי שֶׁלֹּא הָיָה בֵית דִּין שֶׁל אוֹתָהּ שָׁעָה בָּקִי:
Execution by burning: They would steep him in refuse until his thighs [so that he not turn back and forth and the brand fall on his flesh.] They would place a hard cloth into a soft one and tie it around his throat, [the hard one to choke him; the soft one, to shield.] One would pull on one end; another, on the other, until he opened his mouth. Then he (another) would take the [leaden] brand and drop it into his mouth. It would descend to his innards and burn out (chomereth) his intestines, [as in (Eichah 2:11): "My intestines have been burned out" (chamarmaru). This is derived from the death of the sons of Aaron, viz. (Leviticus 10:6): "And let your brothers, the entire house of Israel, bewail the burning which the L rd has burned," where their bodies were not burned, viz. (Ibid. 5): "And they drew near and they carried them in their tunics." Here, too, the mitzvah of burning is satisfied even though their innards alone are burned. And this (form of burning) is preferred, it being written (Leviticus 19:18): "And you shall love your neighbor as yourself" — Choose a humane death for him.] R. Yehudah says: But if he died by their hands [i.e., by strangulation, before the dropping of the brand], they would not have performed the mitzvah of burning! Rather, [they do not choke him, but] they force his mouth open with tongs, kindle a brand, and throw it into his mouth. [The halachah is not in accordance with R. Yehudah.] R. Elazar b. R. Tzaddok said: But once the daughter of a priest committed adultery and they encircled her with twigs and burned her alive! They answered: That beth-din was not versed in the law. [They were Sadducees, who do not expound identities (gezeirah shavah), but who interpret the verse literally.]
Bartenura on Mishnah Sanhedrin
English Explanation of Mishnah Sanhedrin
R. Judah says: “Should he have died at their hands [being strangled by the bandage before the wick was thrown into his mouth], they would not have fulfilled the requirements of execution by fire. Rather his mouth was forced open with pincers against his wish, the wick lit and thrown into his mouth, so that it descended into his body and burned his bowels.
Rabbi Eleazar ben Zadok said: “It once happened that a priest's daughter committed adultery, whereupon bundles of sticks were placed around her and she was burnt. The Sages said to him: “That was because the court at that time was not well learned in law.
Our mishnah describes how execution by burning was to be carried out. It might be helpful to begin with Rabbi Eleazar ben Zadok (section three), who testifies to having seen a priest’s daughter executed by being totally burnt (evidently alive). This follows the seemingly simple requirement mentioned in Lev. 21:9, that a priest’s daughter who committed adultery should be burned. However, the Sages who disagree with him, and those who state their opinion in section one, believed that execution by burning was to be done by burning up the insides of the person. They would open up his mouth and throw burning material inside and it would descend and burn him from the inside. Rabbi Judah’s dispute with the Sages is with regards to the manner in which they would force open his mouth; he does not disagree with the Sages general understanding of how execution by burning was carried out. Rabbi Judah is concerned lest in the process of opening his mouth they strangle him which is a different form of execution.
It is worth discussing briefly the nature of the two different understandings of death by burning. The Rabbis prescribe a form of burning that doesn’t seem to be the simple understanding of the Torah. When the Torah states that someone is to be burned, it probably means an execution similar to that referred to by Rabbi Eleazar ben Zadok in section three. Therefore the question needs to be asked: why did the Rabbis insist that burning would take place by burning the inside and not the outside? The answer is probably not that one form of death was more or less painful than the other. They both sound quite painful. The best answer that is borne out by many other sources, is that the Rabbis did not want to sanction an execution in which the outer body was disfigured. While they believed in the death penalty (again, at least theoretically) they wanted to execute the criminal while doing as little physical, external damage to the body as possible. The body, after all, is a gift from God, and while the person may deserve death according to the law, damaging the body serves no purpose. This is to be contrasted to other cultures that have existed until this very day, who considered the public disfiguring of the body of the criminal to be desirable, either as an example to the rest of society, or as a means to take vengeance even on the corpse. The Rabbis took a strong stand against such practices, one that we will see in several places. Indeed we have already seen this attitude in the previous chapter, when it stated that the hanged body was to be taken down immediately. Although the criminal deserved to die, mutilating his body was indeed, according to Jewish law, an affront to God.