Talmud Bavli
Talmud Bavli

Halakhah for Sotah 90:10

<big><strong>מתני׳</strong></big> נמצא מכוון בין שתי עיירות שתיהן מביאות שתי עגלות דברי רבי אליעזר ואין ירושלים מביאה עגלה ערופה נמצא ראשו במקום אחד וגופו במקום אחר מוליכין הראש אצל הגוף דברי רבי אליעזר רבי עקיבא אומר הגוף אצל הראש מאין היו מודדין רבי אליעזר אומר מטיבורו רבי עקיבא אומר מחוטמו רבי אליעזר בן יעקב אומר ממקום שנעשה חלל מצוארו

IF IT WAS FOUND NEAR TO THE FRONTIER, OR A CITY THE MAJORITY OF WHOSE INHABITANTS WERE GENTILES etc. Because it is written 'be found', thus excluding what commonly occurs.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' It frequently happened that dead bodies were found in such localities. ');"><sup>9</sup></span>

Sefer HaChinukh

From the laws of the commandment is that which they, may their memory be blessed, said (Sotah 45b) that Jerusalem does not bring a beheaded calf; as it is stated about this, "on the land that the Lord, you God, gives to you" - and Jerusalem was not divided [by] the tribes. And likewise we do not bring a calf if it is found near the border or [near] a town the majority of which are gentiles, as the assumption is that the gentiles killed him. [If] there were two towns there, one of which was closer and one of which was not closer but there is a greater multitude of people there than in the closer one, we go after the further one that has many [people] - as so did they, may their memory be blessed, say in the Gemara (Bava Batra 23b), "[In a case where one can decide based on] majority or proximity, one goes after majority." And even though majority and proximity are both from Torah writ - meaning that the Torah commanded us to consider proximity and majority - majority is preferred. And from where we measure, from the nostrils of the killed; the law of its beheading, which is with a kofits (a large knife) from behind it; the law of the washing of the hands; the law of [when] the body is found in one place and the head is found in another place; the law of that which they said (Sotah 44b-45a), "'Slain person' and not strangled person, 'on the land' and not covered by a pile of stones, 'fallen' and not hanging on a tree, 'in the field' and not floating on top of the water"; and the rest of its details are [all] elucidated in the last chapter of Tractate Sotah (see Mishneh Torah, Laws of Murderer and the Preservation of Life 6).
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