Now we’ll talk about what actually happens when a person is stoned. The Mishnah says that the spot where the person was stoned was a tall structure, double the height of a regular person. Let’s assume it was about 12 feet up. The person being put to death stood on top of that structure, accompanied by the two witnesses who testified against him. His hands were tied. One of the witnesses then pushed him from behind so that he fell off the structure and landed on his chest. Once he landed, they flipped him onto his back. If he was lying face down, that was more embarrassing than lying face up.
If he dies. If he dies from that fall, the Bet Din (court) has fulfilled its obligation to kill him. If he does not die from the fall, the other witness picks up a large, heavy stone that was kept there for that purpose. It is so heavy that he cannot lift it alone, so the first witness has to help him bring it up. Then the stone is thrown onto the chest of the person who was supposed to be killed. If the person dies, the court has fulfilled its obligation. If he does not die, the rest of the people present at the execution throw stones at him until he dies. As the passage tells us, “The hands of the witnesses are upon him first. To kill him.” If he doesn’t die, then “the hand of the rest of the nation continues and finishes the job and puts him to death.” We have the witnesses start off because they are the people who know with certainty that the guilt is there, that the person committed the crime. So the Torah gives them the responsibility for the execution.
Anyone who is stoned is hanged for a moment after he dies. That is the opinion of Rabbi Eliezer. The Chachamim (scholars) say, “No, only the person who curses Hashem and an idol worshiper. Those are the only two people who are hanged for people to see.” The man is hanged facing the people, and the woman is hanged facing the tree from which she is being hanged. It is very embarrassing for a woman. It is shameful for her to be hanged with her front facing the people, so they at least spare her that disgrace. They put her face toward the tree and her back toward the people. For the man, it is not considered as embarrassing, so they have him face the people in order to leave a very deep impression on them. The point of the hanging is to put fear into people’s hearts, to make them scared to commit Averot (transgressions). And therefore, this is a reminder to them. This is the opinion of Rabbi Eliezer. The scholars say that only a man is hanged, but a woman is not hanged at all. This is still according to the opinion of the scholars who said before that we are only talking about someone who curses Hashem and somebody who worships Avodah Zarah (idolatry).
Rabbi Eliezer then brings proof that a woman is hanged as well. He says, “Vehalo (but behold), Shimon ben Shetach: We have a case where Shimon ben Shetach hanged a woman in the city of Ashkelon.” These women were practicing magic, which carries the punishment of sekila, of stoning. When Shimon ben Shetach was the head of the Sanhedrin, he stoned these people and then hanged them. So we have a case. How could you claim that women are not hanged as well? Amru lo (They said to him). The Chachamim answered Rabbi Eliezer: “That case—Shimon ben Shetach actually hanged 80 women on the same day.” That fact alone shows that something was up. This was a very rare, out-of-the-norm scenario, because the Halacha (Jewish law) is that a Bet Din is not allowed to judge two cases of the death penalty even on one day. That is so they give each person time to consider it and think it through, and make sure all the details are covered. They are not even allowed to cover two in one day. And here, Shimon ben Shetach had dealt with 80. So it must have been an out-of-the-norm case, and that is why he had 80 in one day. He may also have hanged ladies on that day, but you can’t learn out from that case for other situations. Maybe it was a one-time scenario in which he had to make a point. And that is what the Gemara eventually says: Shimon ben Shetach saw that witchcraft and magic were becoming so problematic that he had to make an example of these ladies who were practicing witchcraft. So he didn’t only hang these ladies; he also publicized the fact that they were being killed and hanged, in order to make sure that people didn’t repeat this type of behavior.
How do they hang the person? They take a post and drive it into the ground. Then there is a beam that comes out of it. There is a horizontal beam attached to the post, extending outwards. One goes into the ground, and then the other comes out of it the other way. The person running the execution takes the body’s two hands, puts them together, one on top of the other, and ties them together with a rope. Then he hangs the body from a rope on the beam. So now the corpse, the body, is hanging from a rope by its hands.
Rabbi Yosei disagrees. Rabbi Yosei says the post is not driven into the ground, but leaned against a wall, with a rope dangling from it. Then the officer, the person running the execution, hangs the body the way butchers do. He suspends the corpse from the one post that is there; he does not make it lie upon the post. The first opinion would say it is lying on the post, pretty much leaning against that horizontal or vertical post. Rabbi Yosei would say, “No, there is only one post that is already leaning.” Then the corpse is hanging from that diagonal post and is not lying upon it, similar to an animal at a butcher’s. They do not leave the corpse hanging there for a long time. After they hang it, they quickly untie it, remove it, and bury it. If they left the body hanging there, it would be a Chilul Hashem, a desecration of Hashem’s name, as we’ll explain. If they left the body there overnight, that would be a violation. As the Pasuk (verse) says, “You’re not allowed to leave the body overnight on the etz (tree), hanging there, but you have to bury him on that same day.” The reason is that “the hanging person is a curse of Hashem.” Why? In other words, when people see the hanging body, what are they going to say? “Why is this body hanging over here?” Then people are going to answer, “Because this person cursed Hashem.” The name of Hashem is going to be desecrated by the fact that people are seeing this. The body hanging here reminds everybody that the person cursed Hashem, and that is a desecration of Hashem’s name. So you have to untie and remove the body right away in order to avoid people talking about it. The Mishnah here is following the opinion that someone is hanged only for cursing Hashem, not for any other type of death penalty, seemingly, or for Avodah Zarah as well, as we had that opinion earlier, which was the opinion of the Chachamim.