Mishnayos Sanhedrin Perek 9 Mishnah 4
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סנהדרין פרק ט׳ משנה ד׳
One who is liable to be executed with two different court-imposed death penalties, as he violated two different capital transgressions, is sentenced to the more severe form of execution. If one violated one transgression for which he is liable to receive two death penalties, e.g., if one engaged in intercourse with his mother-in-law, who is also a married woman, he is sentenced to the more severe form of execution. Rabbi Yosei says: He is sentenced to the form of execution that he is liable to receive due to the first relationship that came upon him, i.e., if she was his mother-in-law before she was married, he is executed by burning; if she was married before she was his mother-in-law, he is punished by strangulation.
מִי שֶׁנִּתְחַיֵּב בִּשְׁתֵּי מִיתוֹת בֵּית דִּין, נִדּוֹן בַּחֲמוּרָה. עָבַר עֲבֵרָה שֶׁנִּתְחַיֵּב בָּהּ שְׁתֵּי מִיתוֹת, נִדּוֹן בַּחֲמוּרָה. רַבִּי יוֹסֵי אוֹמֵר, נִדּוֹן בַּזִקָּה הָרִאשׁוֹנָה שֶׁבָּאָה עָלָיו:
Bartenura
מי שנתחייב שתי מיתות. כגון שעבר עבירה קלה ונגמר דינו לעבירה קלה, וחזר ועבר עבירה חמורה, סלקא דעתך אמינא כיון דנגמר דינו לעבירה קלה, האי גברא קטילא הוא, קמשמע לן:
עבר עבירה שיש בה שתי מיתות. כגון חמותו, והיא אשת איש:
נידון בחמורה. בשריפה. מפני שהיא חמותו. ולא כאשת איש שהיא בחנק:
נדון בזיקה הראשונה. באותו איסור שהוזקק תחלה להזהר ולפרוש ממנו הוא נידון. אבל לא באיסור הבא עליו אחרון, ואע״פ שהוא חמור, דקסבר ר׳ יוסי אין איסור חל על איסור, ואפילו חמור על הקל. ואם נשא בת אלמנה, שהיתה תחלה חמותו כשהיתה פנויה ואחר כך נישאת, נידון בשריפה. ואם היתה אשת איש ואח״כ נעשית חמותו, נידון בחנק כמיתה של אשת איש שהיתה תחלה. ואין הלכה כר׳ יוסי:
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.
עבר עבירה ישי בה שתי מיתות – such as the case of his mother-in-law, and she is a married woman.
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.
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.