9.6 Makkos Daf 07 A (8 lines Up)SummaryRabbi Akiva and Rabbi Tarfon in the _mishna_ (9.3) said: Had we merited being in the Sanhedrin, no one would ever have been killed.Rabbi Yochanan and Rabbi Elazar: In a murder case they would ask “Perhaps the victim was already mortally ill before he was killed”.Question: What would they say in a case of illicit relations°?Abayye and Rava: They would ask “Did you see the peg entering the tube of Blue-stone?” (A figurative way of saying ‘the penetration of the genitalia’).Question: It is indeed impossible to see, so how did the sanhedrin punish in such cases?Answer: By following the principle taught by Shmuel: If they’re lying in the position of adulterers , that’s enough._(Sanhedrin ended capital punishment 40 years before the churban because they foresaw the rise of the Tzedukim. It’s a possibility that Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Tarfon wished to end capital punishment because of the same reason.)_______________° Tosfos: What about Shabbos and Avodah Zarah?Such sins are uncommonIf the sinner was mortally ill, it would make the testimony an “Eidus that cannot be _huzam”._ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.