Masechet Sanhedrin, Perek Vav, Mishnah Hei. In the last Mishnah, we ended with an explanation of the pasuk (verse), “Ki kilelat Elohim talui,” that a hanging person is a curse to Hashem. We explained that people are going to see it and know why he was killed: the person cursed Hashem, and it becomes a disgrace if that happens. So here we're going to give another perush, another explanation, of that pasuk.
The Mishnah says: When a person is suffering because of the aveirot (sins) that he has, what expression does Hashem use to show how sad he is, how much grief he's under? Kivyachol, so to speak. In other words, what does Hashem feel? Kalani meRoshi, kalani miZero'i. We use the word kilelat, which is literally “the curse of.” Here, we're using it in a different fashion. We're saying that Hashem says, “My head feels heavy. My arms feel heavy.” The Shechinah (Divine Presence) is compared to a tired person who feels the weight of his body as very heavy, and the word kilelat is a person's heaviness. When a person is stoned and is hanging, Hashem feels heavy because of how sad he is about the person's suffering. If so, HaMakom mitzta'er al daman shel resha'im (The Omnipresent grieves over the blood of the wicked). We see from here that if Hashem feels pain over a rasha, a wicked person who was put to death, how much more so does Hashem feel the pain of a righteous, innocent person when he is suffering or when he is dealing with something hard in his life?
We'll go back to what we were saying in the last Mishnah about somebody who leaves the body of an executed person unburied overnight. We said he violates a de'oraita (Torah-level prohibition), because the pasuk says, “Don't leave his body hanging overnight; rather, bury it right away.” We'll say: It's not only talking about a person who was executed, whom you have to make sure is buried. You don't leave the body overnight without burial. Anybody who leaves his relative unburied overnight violates the commandment—a negative commandment. We learn this from here: it's not just an executed body, but any type of dead body has to be buried right away.
But in certain situations, it would be allowed to leave a body unburied for a little bit of time. If they left it overnight because of the honor—for example, let's say they have to bring him a coffin, a casket, or burial clothing, burial shrouds, and a robe—it doesn't violate the prohibition. It's not an example of violating the prohibition. The same thing applies if they want to delay the funeral or the burial so relatives could come and give proper respect, or so they could have a big crowd gathered; that would also be allowed. And it's not an over alav (transgresses it); it's not a prohibition, it's not an issur (prohibition) in that type of case.
When they were burying this person who was killed, executed by the court, they wouldn't bury him in his ancestors' cemetery. A rasha, a wicked person like this, is not put with righteous people. There were two cemeteries that were designated and set aside for the court to use. One of them was for those people who were beheaded, who got their heads cut off, and those who were strangled—put to death by Beit Din (court) in these two ways. The other was for those people who were stoned and burned. The methods of execution, stoning and burning, were the two harshest ones. So those who were stoned and burned were alone, and the people who were beheaded and strangled were also alone. We couldn't put the people who were beheaded and strangled near those who were stoned and burned.