Sotah 098

I will not be afraid of tens of thousands of people who have set themselves against me on every side. Arise, God! Save me, my God! For you have struck all of my enemies on the cheek. You have broken the teeth of the wicked. Salvation belongs to God. Your blessing be on your people. [Psalm 3:7-9]

1:
Mishnah 3 is obviously dealing with the treatment of a dismembered corpse. It is, I suppose, just possible that one might think that the subject of our mishnah is from where the measurement is to take place – the measurement to determine which is the nearest township to the corpse. Since the measurement has to be made as precisely as possible we would need to determine from which part of the body of the deceased the measurement is to be made if it has been dismembered (either by the murderer or by wild animals). However, the Gemara [Sotah 45b] rejects this possibility.

2:
According to the Gemara our mishnah is concerned with the manner of the burial of the corpse (which, presumably, should take place even before the expiatory ceremony). The Gemara [Eruvin 17b] discusses the concept of 'Met Mitzvah'. Instead of translating this term let is allow the Gemara itself to define its meaning and its purport:

The Gemara here has introduced two concepts: it has defined both who has to deal with the burial of an unclaimed body and also where this body is to be buried. Every Jew has the right to burial. This duty devolves primarily upon the deceased's family. However, if the deceased has no family, as it were, because he has met his end in the middle of nowhere and any family that he might have would be unaware of his whereabouts, the duty of his burial devolves upon the first Jew to discover the body. Furthermore, the Gemara teaches that such a John Doe is to be buried where he is found (and not brought to burial in a family plot etc): the Met Mitzvah has acquired the ground upon which he is lying and must be buried in that spot.

3:
The Shulĥan Arukh [Yorah De'ah 374:2] states this as law:

4:
This our mishnah is now understood as stating that where one finds a dismembered corpse which must be presumed to be a 'Met Mitzvah' it is a duty to bury it, and it must be buried where it has been found. However, since the body is not intact the question is where should the burial take place? The corpse has 'acquired its site', and there it must be buried; but which part of the body has 'acquired its site'? Rabbi Eli'ezer says that the torso has acquired for burial the ground on which it is lying and it is to that place that the head must be conveyed for burial. Rabbi Akiva says that it is the head that acquires the site for burial and the rest of the body must be conveyed there for burial. Halakhah follows the opinion of Rabbi Akiva.

5:
Mishnah 4 deals with the exact place from which the measurement is to be made from the corpse to the nearest township to determine which settlement is to take responsibility for the ceremony of the 'decapitated calf'. Rabbi Eli'ezer is of the opinion that the measurement should be made from the centre of the body, from the navel. (This is also a logical progression from his opinion concerning a 'Met Mitzvah' in the previous mishnah: just as the torso is the bulk of the body so is the navel the centre point, as it were, of the torso.)

6:
Rabbi Akiva is of the opinion that the measurement should be made from the nose from which the deceased used to draw the breath of life. (This too is a logical progression from his opinion concerning a 'Met Mitzvah' in the previous mishnah: because it contains the nose through which one draws the breath of life the head is the most important part of the body for these purposes.)

7:
Rabbi Eli'ezer ben-Ya'akov is of the opinion that the measurement should be made from the throat or neck. This person is termed a "Ĥalal", someone slain. (The term is usually used of someone slain in battle.) Rabbi Ovadyah of Bertinoro in his commentary on our mishnah suggests that Rabbi Eli'ezer ben-Ya'akov is possibly basing himself on a biblical verse [Ezekiel 21:34] where the term 'Ĥalal' is specifically linked with the throat or the neck. Once the throat has been severed the person has been slain.

8:
Here too, halakhah follows the opinion of Rabbi Akiva.