Halakhah for Sotah 90:9
הא קא משמע לן כדתניא מנין שאם נמצא סמוך לעיר שאין בה ב"ד שמניחין אותה ומודדין לעיר שיש בה בית דין ת"ל (דברים כא, ג) ולקחו זקני העיר ההיא מכל מקום
[Yes:] consequently [you must agree that] 'slain' indicates one who is not strangled; similarly 'in the earth' indicates one who is not hidden in a heap of stones, 'lying' one who is not hanging on a tree, 'in the earth' one who is not floating upon the surface of the water! [How does] R. Eleazar [meet this argument]? — The word 'slain' is written redundantly.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' It occurs four times in Deut. XXI, 1-9; emphasing that he must be 'slain' and not 'strangled'. ');"><sup>8</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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