Mishnah
Mishnah

Commentary for Sanhedrin 9:4

מִי שֶׁנִּתְחַיֵּב בִּשְׁתֵּי מִיתוֹת בֵּית דִּין, נִדּוֹן בַּחֲמוּרָה. עָבַר עֲבֵרָה שֶׁנִּתְחַיֵּב בָּהּ שְׁתֵּי מִיתוֹת, נִדּוֹן בַּחֲמוּרָה. רַבִּי יוֹסֵי אוֹמֵר, נִדּוֹן בַּזִקָּה הָרִאשׁוֹנָה שֶׁבָּאָה עָלָיו:

If one were liable to two judicial death penalties, he is given the more severe. [i.e., If one committed a lesser (capital) transgression, and the verdict were reached on that, and then he committed a more severe (capital) transgression, I might think that since the verdict had been reached for the lesser transgression, he is a "killed man"; we are, therefore apprised otherwise.] If he committed a transgression punishable by two judicial death penalties, [e.g., If he lived with his mother-in-law, another man's wife], he is given the more severe, [i.e., burning, by reason of mother-in-law, and not strangulation by reason of another man's wife.] R. Yossi says: He is judged according to the first relationship [that he must shun, and not according to the latter, even if it is more severe. For R. Yossi holds that one prohibition does not "take" upon another, even one that is more severe upon one that is less severe. So that if he wed the daughter of a widow, who was first his mother-in-law when she was single, and then she married, he is sentenced to burning (if he lives with her). And if she were married and then she became his mother-in-law, he is sentenced to strangulation, the penalty for living with a married woman, which she was first (before she became his mother-in-law). The halachah is not in accordance with R. Yossi.]

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