Commentary for Sanhedrin 69:13

כדתני' (במדבר ו, ז) לאביו ולאמו לאחיו ולאחותו מה ת"ל הרי שהיה הולך לשחוט את פסחו ולמול את בנו

Again, should he be executed in the evening; execution must be carried out 'in the face of the sun.'<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I.e., in the day time. Num XXV, 4. ');">²⁴</span> One the other hand, if judgment is pronounced on the Sabbath whist he is executed on the first day of the week [Sunday], they might delay the course of justice.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Since execution must be carried out on the same day as the verdict. [H] 'to afflict', when used in connection with a court verdict, means to afflict the condemned man by postponing his execution, the wait being an additional mental torment. ');">²⁵</span> If he be tried on the eve of the Sabbath, and the matter concluded on the first day of the week, they might have forgotten their reasons by then, for although two judges' clerks stand before them and write down the arguments of those who would acquit and those who would convict,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Supra 34a. ');">²⁶</span> they can but record according to the mouth,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I.e., the actual words. ');">²⁷</span> yet once the heart forgets, it remains forgotten.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I.e., the spirit of the argument may not be recalled through the written word. ');">²⁸</span> Hence this is impossible. Resh Rakish said to R. Johanan: Why should not the burial of a Meth-Mizwah<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' [H] Lit., 'A corpse which it is a religious obligation (to bury). 'The burial of a dead person has no relatives to attend to him devolves upon anyone, even a High Priest. This query is raised here only because of a subsequent question whether execution on a Sabbath day is permissible. ');">²⁹</span> supersede [the laws of] the Sabbath, reasoning a minori: if the Temple service, which sets aside the Sabbath,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' E.g., by the offering of the Tamid or daily burnt offering. Cf. Num. XXVIII, 2; Pes 77a. ');">³⁰</span> is itself suspended for the burial of a Meth-Mizwah (as is deduced from, And to his sister, even as it has been taught: To his father and to his mother and to his brother and to his sister:<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Num. VI, 7. For these the Nazarite may not render himself unclean. A similar restriction is imposed on the High Priest. ');">³¹</span> What does this teach us?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I.e., why is it necessary to detail all these relations, seeing that it has already been stated in the previous verse: He shall not come near to a dead body, which includes all relations? The Sifre on the verse comments on the reason for each: He may not defile himself for his father, but he must for a Meth-Mizwah; nor for his mother, but he must for a Meth-Mizwah, even if he be a priest as well as a Nazarite, nor for his brother, but he must for a Meth-Mizwah even if he be a High Priest as well as a Nazarite; nor for his sister, but he must defile himself for a Meth-Mizwah, even if he be a High Priest as well as a Nazarite and engaged in such duties as are stated in the Gemara. ');">³²</span> [Even] if he [the <i>Nazir</i>] were on his way to sacrifice the Paschal lamb or to circumcise his son,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Both of which acts must he performed at a prescribed time. ');">³³</span>

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