The Routledge Dictionary of Judaism
[1] Jewish legislative and administrative agency in Temple times, in charge of internal affairs of the Jewish community; based in the Jerusalem Temple.
[2] Mishnah tractate devoted to the organization of the government and court system and the punishments administered to those convicted by the courts of having committed various crimes. The court system is described at 1:1–5:5, which concerns various kinds of courts and their jurisdictions, the heads of the nation and of the courts, the procedures of the court system in property and capital cases.
Then come rules on the death penalty (6:1–11:6), administered through stoning, burning, decapitation, and strangulation. How these penalties are administered is described, and the classifications of sins or crimes punished by each is specified. Extra-judicial penalties administered by Heaven are spelled out: all Israelites share in the world-to-come except those who deny that the Torah teaches the resurrection of the dead. Both versions of the Talmud devote important and lengthy expositions to this tractate.
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