Свидетели не становятся зомеминами до тех пор, пока они сами не станут зомеминами [т.е. в отношении того, что их касается, а не того, что касается убийцы или убитых, как объясняется ниже. Это происходит из (Второзаконие 19:18): «И вот, лжесвидетель есть свидетель»—пока ложь не присущи самим свидетелям.] Как же так? Если они сказали: мы свидетельствуем об этом человеке, что он убил другого, и они опровергаются— Как вы можете сказать это, когда (предполагаемая) жертва или убийца были с нами в тот день в другом месте? —они не оказываются zomemin. Но если бы они сказали: как вы можете сказать это, когда были с нами в тот день в другом месте? они превращаются в зомеминов, и их убивают по их показаниям.
Bartenura on Mishnah Makkot
Until they themselves are zommemized. That you zommemize them regarding their own [testimony] matters, and not the matters regarding the murderer and the murdered one, as it will go to explain. We derive this from the verse as it is written (Deuteronomy 19:18) "And behold the witness is a false witness", [this teaches us that they are not zommemized] until you falsify their status as witnesses.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Makkot
Introduction
Mishnah four continues to discuss the laws of perjuring witnesses.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Makkot
Witnesses are not condemned as perjurers until they themselves are incriminated; How so? If they said: “We testify that so and so killed a person” and others said to them: “How could you testify to that, as that murdered person or that [alleged] murderer was with us on that very day, at such and such a place?” [then] the witnesses are not condemned as perjurers. But, if these [other] witnesses said: “How could you testify to that, as on that very day, you were with us at such and such a place?’ [then] the former are condemned as perjurers, and are executed by their [the other witnesses] word. This mishnah contains the Rabbinic definition of the type of perjuring witnesses referred to in the Torah. According to the Rabbis witnesses who are contradicted in their testimony are not always to receive the punishment that they tried to impose upon the accused. If other witnesses come and merely contradict the first witnesses’ testimony, while the testimony of the first witnesses may be invalidated, they do not receive the punishment that they tried to impose. After all, why should the court believe the testimony of the last witnesses more than it believes the testimony of the first witnesses? Rather, only if the second set of witnesses testify that the first set of witnesses could not have even seen that which they purport to have seen are the first witnesses punished as perjurers. This is what the mishnah means when it states that the witnesses themselves must be incriminated. In other words the form of perjury referred to in the Torah is only a case where the witnesses lie about their own whereabouts at the time of the crime. If they lie about the crime itself, while they may be punished with lashes for false testimony, they do not receive the punishment they attempted to impose.
