Let's finish Mishnayos in memory of those who were murdered in Israel.
Pledge Mishnayos
Mishnah.org Logo

Mishnayos Makkos Perek 3 Mishnah 10

מכות פרק ג׳ משנה י׳

10

With how many lashes does one flog a person sentenced to receive lashes? One flogs him with forty lashes less one, as it is stated: “And he shall strike him before him, in accordance with his wickedness, by number. Forty he shall strike him, he shall not add” (Deuteronomy 25:2–3). The mishna joins the end of the first verse and the beginning of the second, forming the phrase: “By number, forty,” which is interpreted as: A sum adjacent to forty. Rabbi Yehuda says: He is flogged with a full forty lashes. And where is he flogged the extra lash? As the mishna proceeds to explain, the thirty-nine lashes are divided into three and administered in three places on the body of the person being flogged; according to Rabbi Yehuda there is one lash that remains. That lash is administered between his shoulders.

כַּמָּה מַלְקִין אוֹתוֹ, אַרְבָּעִים חָסֵר אַחַת. שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (דברים כה) בְּמִסְפָּר אַרְבָּעִים, מִנְיָן שֶׁהוּא סָמוּךְ לְאַרְבָּעִים. רַבִּי יְהוּדָה אוֹמֵר, אַרְבָּעִים שְׁלֵמוֹת הוּא לוֹקֶה. וְהֵיכָן הוּא לוֹקֶה אֶת הַיְתֵרָה, בֵּין כְּתֵפָיו:

י׳
Bartenura

מנין שהוא סמוך לארבעים – that causes to say afterwards “forty,” which is thirty nine. If the Torah had written: “Forty in number,” I would think that forty is the number. Now that it is written (Deuteronomy 25:2-3): “by count” (verse 2) and “Up to forty” (verse 3), it is the number that causes one to say after it “forty,” that is, “thirty-nine.”

והיכן הוא לוקה את היתירה – that is not worthy to be divisible by three, for thirty-nine is worthy of being divided by three, one third in his front, and two thirds – one on this shoulder and one on the other shoulder. And this of forty – how would he flog it?

בין כתפיו – But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda.

מנין שהוא סמוך לארבעים. שגורם לומר אחריו ארבעים, דהיינו תשע ושלשים. אי הוה כתיב ארבעים במספר, הוה אמינא ארבעים במנינא, השתא דכתיב במספר ארבעים, במספר הגורם לומר אחריו ארבעים, דהיינו תשע ושלשים:

והיכן הוא לוקה את היתירה. שאינה ראויה להשתלש. דתשע ושלשים ראויות להשתלש, שליש מלפניו ושתי ידות אחת על כתף זו ואחת על כתף זו, וזו של ארבעים היכן לוקה אותה:

בין כתפיו. ואין הלכה כר׳ יהודה: