Shim'on ben-Shataĥ says: Examine the witnesses thoroughly; but be very careful with your words, lest from them they learn how to lie [successfully].
10:
We can now turn our attention to the teaching attributed to Shim'on ben-Shataĥ in our present mishnah: Examine the witnesses thoroughly, but be very careful with your words, lest from them they learn how to lie.
11:
Behind these laconic words, which seem almost banal, there lies a personal tragedy of the greatest magnitude. You may recall that in Avot040 I mentioned that Shim'on ben-Shataĥ "executed as witches eighty (!) women in one day in Ashkelon". It seems that the relatives of these women, filled with a desire for revenge, brought false witness against Shim'on's son, whom they accused of a crime which involved capital punishment. They probably realized that they could never convince a court of Shim'on's guilt but hoped that they would be able to convince the court that his son had committed a serious crime. As a result of this false testimony the son was indeed sentenced to death. According to custom, before he was about to be killed the son was asked to confess his sins. He said, "If I am guilty of this crime may my death not atone for it; but if I am innocent of this crime may my death atone for all my sins except this one, and may the guilt for my death be a yoke about the neck of the [lying] witnesses [only], and this court and all Israel shall be held innocent of my death." This passionate display of outraged innocence was so heart-rending that even the conspiratorial witnesses were moved to admit the falsity of their testimony.
12:
Halakhic jurisprudence denies witnesses the right to renege on their testimony. This was enacted in order to counteract the possibility of improper pressure being put on witnesses by interested parties. I cannot go into details here, but in order to understand such regulations one must bear in mind that there was no such thing as a police force or a public body whose duty it was to investigate crimes, so the sages had to enact regulations that would protect the witnesses. We must also bear in mind that the kind of witness who is the subject of this discussion is the equivalent of the prosecutor. For greater understanding I must refer those interested to the archives of Tractate Sanhedrin.
13:
Thus it was that when the judges were about to liberate the condemned man – the son of Shim'on ben-Shataĥ – he called their attention to the fact that, according to law, a witness must not be believed when he withdraws a former statement. His father, obviously, tried very hard to persuade the court to annul their verdict. It was at this point that the son addressed his father thus: "If you desire that the rule of law in Israel shall be strengthened at your hand, then you must consider me as the threshold on which you must tread without regret". The execution then proceeded.
14:
The Talmud of Eretz-Israel [Sanhedrin 28a] recounts the incident in the following manner:
This stark story is best explained by referring to the incident as explained by Rashi in his commentary on the Babylonian Gemara, Sanhedrin 44a, which I have presented above.
15:
This tragic experience is reflected in the dictum of Shim'on ben-Shataĥ: "Examine the witnesses thoroughly", for had the court been more diligent in its cross examination of these lying witnesses his son would not have died. You may also recall that the colleague of Shim'on ben-Shataĥ, Yehudah ben-Tabbai, was involved in a miscarriage of justice which involved conspiratorial witnesses. In Avot039 I presented the following story, which, it seems to me, takes on an added meaning when read in connection with the story of the death of the son of Shim'on ben-Shataĥ:
Rabbi Yehudah ben-Tabbai says: "In very truth I sentenced someone to death because of a conspiratorial witness"… Shim'on ben-Shataĥ retorted: "In very truth you shed innocent blood!"… Yehudah ben-Tabbai immediately took upon himself never to adjudicate unless Shim'on ben-Shataĥ were also present! And throughout the rest of his life Yehudah ben-Tabbai would visit the grave of that executed person and his wailing was thought by the people to the a wailing from the grave. He told them, "It is my voice…"
In Avot040 I wrote:
Salomé Alexandra … was to be the first and last woman – so far – in history to hold in her hands the political destinies of the Jewish people until her only counterpart, Golda Meir, 2045 years later.
Two people have written to contradict me: Meir Stone and Daniel Werlin. They both wish to remind me of two women who preceded Salome Alexandra in power: Deborah and Athaliah.
I respond:
Technically you may be right, but I still stick to my guns. Deborah was a prophetess not a monarch, and the sages took great pains to point out that hers was a task of encouragement and not one of rule. Athaliah, a sister or half-sister of Ahab King of Israel, had been married to the King of Judah. When he died Athaliah murdered all the royal offspring and usurped power [2Kings 11]. The High Priest managed to save one child and a few years later led a revolt and the Davidic line was restored and Athaliah was killed. I would prefer not to recognize Athaliah as a rightful ruler.
