Si uno fuera responsable de dos penas de muerte judiciales, se le da la más severa. [es decir, si uno cometió una transgresión menor (capital), y se llegó al veredicto sobre eso, y luego cometió una transgresión (capital) más severa, podría pensar que dado que se ha alcanzado el veredicto para la transgresión menor, él es un "hombre asesinado"; por lo tanto, se nos informa lo contrario.] Si cometió una transgresión castigada con dos penas de muerte judiciales, [por ejemplo, si vivía con su suegra, la esposa de otro hombre], se le da la más severa, [es decir, la quema , por razón de la suegra, y no por estrangulamiento por razón de la esposa de otro hombre.] R. Yossi dice: Se lo juzga de acuerdo con la primera relación [que debe evitar, y no de acuerdo con la segunda, incluso si es así. Es más severo. Para R. Yossi sostiene que una prohibición no "toma" sobre otra, incluso una que es más severa sobre otra que es menos severa. De modo que si se casa con la hija de una viuda, que fue su suegra cuando era soltera, y luego se casó, se le condena a la quema (si vive con ella). Y si ella estaba casada y luego se convirtió en su suegra, él es sentenciado a estrangulamiento, la pena por vivir con una mujer casada, que ella era la primera (antes de convertirse en su suegra). La halajá no está de acuerdo con R. Yossi.]
Bartenura on Mishnah Sanhedrin
מי שנתחייב שתי מיתות – such as the case where a person committed a minor transgression and when the proceedings were finished (i.e., the sentence was pronounced), he went and committed a major transgression; one might think that since the proceedings were finished for the minor transgression, that he is a man to be put to death, this comes to teach us that this is not the case.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Sanhedrin
Introduction
Mishnah four discusses a person who through one act incurs two different types of death penalty.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Sanhedrin
עבר עבירה ישי בה שתי מיתות – such as the case of his mother-in-law, and she is a married woman.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Sanhedrin
While in the previous mishnah we learned that if we are unsure of which death penalty a person is to receive he gets the more lenient one, in our mishnah we learn that if a person deserves two death penalties, he gets the more severe one.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Sanhedrin
נידון בחמורה – with burning (i.e., swallowing a molten-liquid), because she is his mother-in-law, and not like [for a transgression] with a married woman which is [punishable] by choking.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Sanhedrin
He who incurs two death penalties imposed by the court is executed by the severer. Section one deals with a person who has committed two different crimes which carry the death penalty. Even if he was already sentenced to the lighter death penalty, and then committed another crime which carries a more severe form of the death penalty, he still gets the more severe form. In other words, we do not say that since he already was sentenced to one death penalty it is as if he has already been executed and therefore he cannot get another.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Sanhedrin
נדון בזיקה הראשונה – with that prohibited act that he was obligated to regard first to be careful to separate himself from he is judged, but not on the prohibition that he comes upon last, even though it is the more stringent, for Rabbi Yosi holds that one prohibition does not take effect on another, and even the more stringent upon the lenient, and if he married the daughter of a widow, who was first his mother-in-law when she was a free-woman and after that she married, he is judged with burning (i.e., swallowing a molten-liquid). And if she was a married woman and afterwards became his mother-in-law, she is judged with choking, like the death of a married woman that she was at first. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yosi.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Sanhedrin
If he committed one sin for which a twofold death penalty is incurred, he is executed by the severer. R. Jose says: “He is judged according to the first penalty which was placed upon him.” Section two deals with a person who through one crime receives two different forms of the death penalty. For instance if a man has relations with his married mother-in-law he is obligated for burning (since he had relations with a mother and her daughter) and for strangulation, since he committed adultery. According to the Sages he again receives the more serious form of the death penalty. According to Rabbi Yose he receives the death penalty for the crime which potentially existed first. We will explain. If he marries a widow’s daughter, this woman is now forbidden to him since she is his mother-in-law but she is not forbidden as a married woman, since she is a widow. If he were to now have relations with her he would be punished through burning. If she were then to get married, the punishment would also be strangulation. Since the prohibition of a mother-in-law existed first, he is punished by burning. If, however, she was married and then he married her daughter, he would be punished by strangulation, since she was first prohibited to him due to her being a married woman.
