Midrash su Esodo 23:2

Hezkiya taught (Jeremiah 50:17): "Israel are scattered sheep" - why are Israel likened to a sheep? Just as a sheep, when hurt on its head or some other body part, all of its body parts feel it. So it is with Israel when one of them sins and everyone feels it. (Numbers 16:22): "When one man sins [will You be wrathful with the whole community]." Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai taught a parable: Men were on a ship. One of them took a drill and started drilling underneath him. The others said to him: What are sitting and doing?! He replied: What do you care. Is this not underneath my area that I am drilling?! They said to him: But the water will rise and flood us all on this ship. This is as Iyob said (Job 19:4): "If indeed I have erred, my error remains with me." But his friends said to him (Job 34:37): "He adds transgression to his sin; he extends it among us." [The men on the ship said]: You extend your sins among us. Rabbi Elasa said: a gentile asked Rabbi Yehoshua ben Karha: In your Torah, it is written (Exodus 23:2): "After the multitude will you side." We are more numerous than you, so why don't you become like us in practicing idolatry? He [Rabbi Yehoshua ben Karha] said to him: Do you have children? He replied: You reminded me of my troubles. He asked: Why? [The gentile] said: I have many children. When they sit at my table, this one blesses to this god and that one blesses to that god, and they don't get up from the table until they wrack each other's brains. He [Rabbi Yehoshua ben Karha] said: Do you settle [the arguments] with them? He said: No. He [Rabbi Yehoshua ben Karha] said: Before you make us agree with you, find agreement with your own children! [The gentile] was spurned and went away. After he left [Rabbi Yehoshua ben Karha's] students said to him: Rabbi! You pushed him away like a broken reed, but what would you answer for us? He said to them: Six souls are about written [in the Torah] about Esau, and "souls" [nefashot] is written in the plural, as stated (Genesis 36:6): "Esau took his wives, his sons and daughters, and all the souls of his household." For Yaakov, however, there were seventy souls, and soul [nefesh] is written [in the Torah] in the singular. As it is stated (Exodus 1:5): "And all of the people [nefesh] that were of Jacob's issue, etc." Because Esau worshipped many gods, it is written many "souls," but for Yaakov--who worshipped one God--it is written one soul, "And all of the people [nefesh], etc."

We are taught in a Mishnah: Concerning an oven which was separated and then it was pasted together by using sand between the lime sections. R. Eliezer declares it to be clean and the sages, unclean, (Ib. b) and this is the oven of a snake. What does this mean? Said R. Juda in the name of Samuel: "It intimates that they encircled it with their evidence as a snake winds itself around an object." In a Baraitha it was taught that R. Eliezer used every possible argument, but they were not accepted. Then he said: "Let this carob-tree prove that the Halacha prevails as I state;" the carob was [miraculously] thrown off to a distance of one hundred ells, and according to others four hundred ells. But they said: The carob proves nothing. He again said: "Let, then, the spring of water prove that so the Halacha prevails." The water then began to run backwards. But again the sages said that this proved nothing. He again said: "Then, let the walls of the house of study prove that I am right." The walls were about to fall. R. Joshua, however, rebuked them, saying: "If the scholars of this college are discussing upon a Halacha, wherefore should ye interfere!" They did not fall, out of respect for R. Joshua, but they did not become straight again, out of respect for R. Eliezer. (They consequently remain to this very day in the same condition). He said again: "Let it be announced by the heavens that the Halacha pervails according to my statement," whereupon a heavenly voice was heard, saying: "Why do you quarrel with R. Eliezer, whose opinion should prevail everywhere!" R. Joshua then got up on his feet and proclaimed (Deut. 30, 12) The Law is not in the heavens. What is the meaning of The Law is not in the heavens? Said R. Jeremiah: "It means, the Torah was given already to us on the Mount Sinai, and we do not care for a heavenly voice, since it is written in the Torah (Ex. 23, 2) To incline after the majority." R. Nathan met Elijah [the Prophet] and questioned him: "What did the Holy One, praised be He! do at that time" [when R. Joshua proclaimed the above answer to the heavenly voice]? And he rejoined: "He laughed and said, My children have overruled Me, My children have overruled Me." It was said that on the same day all the cases of Levitical cleanliness, on which R. Eliezer decided that they were clean, were brought into the college and were destroyed by fire. And they cast a vote, and it was decided unanimously to bless him (to place him under the ban). The question arose, as to who should take the trouble to inform him. R. Akiba said: "I will go [and inform him our decision] lest one who is not fit for such a message go and inform him suddenly, and he will destroy the world." What did R. Akiba do? He dressed himself in black and wrapped himself with the same color, and sat at a distance of four ells from R. Eliezer. And to his question: "Akiba, what is the matter?" he answered: "Rabbi! It seems to me that your colleagues have separated themselves from you." Immediately thereupon, he (R. Eliezer) tore his garments, took off his shoes, and sat on the floor, and from his eyes tears began to flow. The world was then beaten a third in olives, a third in wheat, and a third in barley. According to others, even the dough which was already in the hands of the women, became spoiled. A Baraitha states that he was so great in that day that wherever R. Eliezer fixed his eye, it was burnt. And also Rabban Gamaliel, who had at that time been sailing, was in danger of being drowned in a stormy ocean, and he said: "It seems to me that this storm is because of R. Eliezer b. Hurkanus." He then arose and offered the following prayer: "Sovereign of the Universe, it is known and revealed to Thee that neither for the sake of my honor nor for the honor of my father's house have I done so, but for Thy glory, so that [single-handed] quarrels shall not increase in Israel." Whereupon the sea became quiet. Eima Shalum, the wife of R. Eliezer, was a sister of Rabban Gamaliel, and since that time she prevented her husband from falling upon his face. It happened, however, on a day which was the last of the month, and she erred, thinking that this day was the first of the month [in which the falling upon the face is not customary], according to others, a poor man knocked at the door and she was going to give him some bread, that he fell on his face, and when she returned and found her husband falling on his face, she said to him: "Arise, you have already killed my brother!" In the meantime it was heralded by the house of Rabban Gamaliel that he was dead, and to the question R. Eliezer asked her: "Whence did you know this?" she answered: "I have a tradition from the house of my grandfather that all gates are closed for prayers, except for him who cries upon annoying."

“Your eyes are pools in Ḥeshbon.” “Your eyes,” these are the Sanhedrin, who are the eyes of the congregation, just as it says: “It shall be, if from the eyes of the congregation” (Numbers 15:24). There are two hundred and forty-eight limbs in a person and all of them follow the eyes. So too, Israel is unable to do anything without its Sanhedrin. “Pools in Ḥeshbon,” matters of calculation [ḥeshbon]; thirty-six exonerate and thirty-five convict.³³The seventy-one members of the Sanhedrin would vote on a given case. If the majority, thirty-six, would exonerate, the defendant would be acquitted. “By the gate of Bat Rabim,” this is the halakha that emerges from the gatehouse and is disseminated to the multitudes. Rabbi Yehuda ben Rabbi says: It is attributed to: “Inclining after the majority [rabim]” (Exodus 23:2).

(Bamidbar 35:22) "And if of a sudden, without hatred, he thrust him": to exclude (his killing) unwittingly. "or he cast upon him some instrument, but not in prey": without "hunting" or intent to kill. (22) "Or with any stone, whereby one can die," "without seeing": to include (for exile) a blind man and one who throws (a stone) at night. R. Yehudah says: "without seeing": to exclude a blind man. "and he not be his foe": Issi b. Akiva says: We find his stringency to be his lenity, and his lenity, his stringency, viz.: You cannot make him liable for the death penalty — Perhaps he killed him unwittingly. And you cannot make him liable for exile — Perhaps he killed him wittingly. "and he not be his foe" (juxtaposed with [24] "Then the congregation shall judge"): to exclude haters from sitting in judgment. This tells me of haters. Whence do we derive the same for kin? From (24) "between the slayer and the avenger" (with no other "relationship" intervening). Whence do I derive the same for witnesses? It follows, viz.: The Torah states: Kill through (the agency of) judges, kill through witnesses. Just as judges who are (their) haters or kin are unfit (to judge in their case), so, witnesses (who are haters or kin). Furthermore, it follows a fortiori, viz.: If judges — who do not decide (the facts of the case) — haters and kin are unfit to serve (as judges), then witnesses — who decide (the facts of the case) — how much more so are haters and kin unfit to serve (as witnesses)! This tells me only of (the instance of a murderer). Whence do I derive (the same for) all other instances of the death penalty? From [the superfluous] (Ibid.) "according to these judgments." This tells me only of Israelites. Whence do I derive the same for proselytes? From (Vayikra 24:22) "for proselytes and native-born (Israelites) alike." This tells me only of capital cases. Whence do I derive (the same for) monetary cases? From (Ibid.) "One (standard of) judgment shall there be for you," — But perhaps just as capital cases (are adjudicated) by twenty-three, so, monetary cases? It is, therefore, written (here) "according to these (capital) judgments." These are (adjudicated) by twenty-three, and not monetary judgments, of which it is written (Shemot 22:8) "Until elohim (counting three judges) shall come the dispute of both." And whence is it derived that capital cases (are adjudicated) by twenty-three? From (Bamidbar 35:24) "And the congregation (ten) shall judge" (25) And the congregation (ten) shall rescue" — twenty all together. And whence is it derived that three are added? From (Shemot 23:2) "Do not be after the many to do evil," I understand that I should be with them to do good. If so, what is the intent of (Ibid.) "After the many (i.e., the majority to incline" (judgment)? Let your judgment for good (i.e., acquittal) not be like your judgment for evil (i.e., incrimination). I still would not know how many, (but the Torah states: Kill by witnesses; kill by the inclination of the judges. Just as witnesses are two, so, the inclination of the judges (i.e., acquittal, is with a majority of one, and incrimination by a majority of two); and since the verdict of beth-din cannot be evenly balanced, three most be added to them (the twenty). The expounders of metaphor stated: The three "eduyoth" ("congregants") written in this section (one in [24] and two in [27]) signal that capital cases are adjudicated by thirty.