For the source text click/tap here: Sanhedrin 35
To download, click/tap here: PDF
Our daf focuses on death. Well, not death, exactly, but on the death penalty. The rabbis want to understand more about what to do with a verdict that requires capital punishment. The gemara notes that monetary sins are begun and finished their trials during the day. Only one capital case can be heard on the same day.
The Gemara explains that the need for many courts to be established did not stem from a technical rule that forbids a court from judging two people on a given day, since Rav Ḥisda taught that many people can be tried on the same day if it is for the same offense. Rather the need for many courts was to “remove God’s anger” (as indicated in the closing words of Num 25:4).
We explore midrasnhic indeterminacy as well The Sin of Protesting God in Rabbinic and Patristic Literature.