Quotation for Sanhedrin 73:16

ושמא תאמרו

whilst now ye place me at the tail!<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Of the first row. ');">²⁸</span> Said Abaye: They can answer him thus: Better a tail to lions than a head to foxes.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Aboth IV, 15. ');">²⁹</span> <b><i>MISHNAH</i></b>. HOW WERE THE WITNESSES INSPIRED WITH AWE? WITNESSES IN CAPITAL CHARGES<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' [Ms.M: How are witnesses in capital charges intimidated? They were brought in, etc.] ');">³⁰</span> WERE BROUGHT IN AND INTIMIDATED [THUS]: PERHAPS WHAT YE SAY IS BASED ONLY ON CONJECTURE,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I.e., from circumstantial evidence. ');">³¹</span> OR HEARSAY,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' [A general rumour (Yad Ramah).] ');">³²</span> OR IS EVIDENCE FROM THE MOUTH OF ANOTHER WITNESS,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' [Each one of you has heard it from a separate witness (Yad Ramah).] ');">³³</span> OR EVEN FROM THE MOUTH OF A TRUSTWORTHY PERSON:<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' [You both heard it from the same trustworthy person.] ');">³⁴</span> PERHAPS YE ARE UNAWARE THAT ULTIMATELY WE SHALL SCRUTINIZE YOUR EVIDENCE BY CROSS EXAMINATION AND INQUIRY? KNOW THEN THAT CAPITAL CASES ARE NOT LIKE MONETARY CASES. IN CIVIL SUITS, ONE CAN MAKE MONETARY RESTITUTION<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' If he causes financial loss through giving false testimony. ');">³⁵</span> AND THEREBY EFFECT HIS ATONEMENT; BUT IN CAPITAL CASES HE IS HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS BLOOD [sc. THE ACCUSED'S] AND THE BLOOD OF HIS [POTENTIAL] DESCENDANTS UNTIL THE END OF TIME,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., 'the world', i.e., not only for the death of the accused himself, but of his potential descendants for all time. ');">³⁶</span> FOR THUS WE FIND IN THE CASE OF CAIN, WHO KILLED HIS BROTHER, THAT IT IS WRITTEN: THE BLOODS OF THY BROTHER CRY UNTO ME:<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Gen.IV, 10; [H] is plural. ');">³⁷</span> NOT THE BLOOD OF THY BROTHER, BUT THE BLOODS OF THY BROTHER, IS SAID — i.e., HIS BLOOD AND THE BLOOD OF HIS [POTENTIAL] DESCENDANTS. (ALTERNATIVELY, THE BLOODS OF THY BROTHER, TEACHES THAT HIS BLOOD WAS SPLASHED OVER TREES AND STONES.)<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' This is obviously not part of the caution, but interpolated. V. Krauss, Sanhedrin-Makkot a.l. ');">³⁸</span> FOR THIS REASON WAS MAN CREATED ALONE, TO TEACH THEE THAT WHOSOEVER DESTROYS A SINGLE SOUL OF ISRAEL,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' 'OF ISRAEL' is absent in some texts. ');">³⁹</span> SCRIPTURE IMPUTES [GUILT] TO HIM AS THOUGH HE HAD DESTROYED A COMPLETE WORLD; AND WHOSOEVER PRESERVES A SINGLE SOUL OF ISRAEL, SCRIPTURE ASCRIBES [MERIT] TO HIM AS THOUGH HE HAD PRESERVED A COMPLETE WORLD.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Since all mankind originated from one man. ');">⁴⁰</span> FURTHERMORE, [HE WAS CREATED ALONE] FOR THE SAKE OF PEACE AMONG MEN, THAT ONE MIGHT NOT SAY TO HIS FELLOW, 'MY FATHER WAS GREATER THAN THINE, AND THAT THE MINIM<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' V. p. 211, n. 8, and p. 239, n. 9; here, however, it is more probable that the allusion is to the Gnostics and their doctrine of the Demiurgus; v. Krauss, op. cit. a.l. ');">⁴¹</span> MIGHT NOT SAY, THERE ARE MANY RULING POWERS IN HEAVEN; AGAIN, TO PROCLAIM THE GREATNESS OF THE HOLY ONE, BLESSED BE HE: FOR IF A MAN STRIKES MANY COINS FROM ONE MOULD, THEY ALL RESEMBLE ONE ANOTHER, BUT THE SUPREME KING OF KINGS,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., 'the King of the Kings of the Kings.' ');">⁴²</span> THE HOLY ONE, BLESSED BE HE, FASHIONED EVERY MAN IN THE STAMP OP THE FIRST MAN, AND YET NOT ONE OF THEM RESEMBLES HIS FELLOW. THEREFORE EVERY SINGLE PERSON IS OBLIGED TO SAY: THE WORLD WAS CREATED FOR MY SAKE.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' How grave the responsibility therefore of corrupting myself by giving false evidence, and thus bringing the moral guilt of murder upon a whole world. ');">⁴³</span> PERHAPS YE WILL SAY:

Pri HaAretz