וְלֹ֤א תֵֽלְכוּ֙ בְּחֻקֹּ֣ת הַגּ֔וֹי אֲשֶׁר־אֲנִ֥י מְשַׁלֵּ֖חַ מִפְּנֵיכֶ֑ם כִּ֤י אֶת־כָּל־אֵ֙לֶּה֙ עָשׂ֔וּ וָאָקֻ֖ץ בָּֽם׃
A nie postępujcie podług ustaw narodu, który wypędzam przed obliczem waszém; bo wszystko to czynili i zmierziłem ich sobie.
Rabbeinu Bahya
לא תלין נבלתו על העץ, “Do not leave his body on the gallows overnight.” This is a warning that the body which was hanged after execution should not be allowed to remain on display overnight. Our sages used this verse to expand the law that a dead person should not remain unburied overnight (Sanhedrin 46). Sifri Ki Teytze states flatly that leaving a body unburied overnight is an infringement of the law not to leave the body of an executed person on the gallows overnight. It would be a double insult to leave man on the tree seeing the tree was meant in his honor, i.e. to provide the coffin for his body. Unless leaving the body overnight in order to supply it with shrouds, a coffin, etc., it would be an infringment of the law not to allow a dead corpse to remain unburied overnight.
The general rule applicable to this commandment is that in the land of Israel if one leaves a person on the gallows overnight one has violated both a positive and a negative commandment. The negative commandment is spelled out here in the words לא תלין נבלתו על העץ, whereas the positive aspect of the commandment are the words כי קבור תקברנו ביום ההוא, “but you are surely to bury him on that day.”
It seems to me that seeing Adam’s sin had been the cause that he did not spend the night in Gan Eden as we know from Psalms 49,13 אדם ביקר בל ילין, “Adam does not even spend a single night in the precious place” (as interpreted in Sanhedrin 38), man should not have qualified for all this consideration, but, on the contrary, his body deserved to be displayed overnight. The Torah teaches us with this legislation that despite such considerations it applies different yardsticks in its immeasurable wisdom as explained by the words כי קללת אלו-הים תלוי, “someone left hanging is a curse in the eyes of G’d.” According to the plain meaning of these words the implication is that it is proof that the person whose body has been hung must have blasphemed G’d the Creator, or he must have been guilty of serving idols. Otherwise he would not have been on display overnight. [Legally speaking, according to the majority opinion in Sanhedrin 45, only the body of a blasphemer was hung on the gallows for the balance of the day of his execution. Ed.]. We may therefore understand the word קללת as having a dual meaning, i.e. קללה, “curse,” and קלה, “treating lightly, as being of no value, belittling.” He who serves idols treats the Creator as if He were irrelevant.
Our sages in Sanhedrin 46 describe a person when he is in a depressed state of mind as saying קל עלי עלמא, “the world is ‘light’ for me,” as really meaning that the world is too heavy for him, but he does not want to utter something that could be self-incriminating. Similarly, here. The Shechinah does not want to “incriminate“ itself. Therefore the Torah phrases this sentiment as if it were bemoaning its own fate, whereas in reality it is expressing its pain at the fate that befell one of its creatures. G’d experiences pain when man has to die. We know this already from Exodus 3,7 where G’d tells Moses concerning the pain experienced by the Jewish people כי ידעתי את מכאוביו, “for I am keenly aware of its pains.” Another verse testifying to this empathy of G’d with the pain of the Jewish people is found in Isaiah 63,9 בכל צרתם לו צר, “in all its troubles, G’d is troubled.” We have to understand the words קללת אלו-הים in a similar fashion, describing G’d’s empathy with this particular individual’s fate.
The Talmud in Sanhedrin raises questions against the peculiar wording saying that if indeed this is the correct interpretation the Torah should have written קלת instead of קללת. The answer given is that the reason the Torah wrote the extra letter ל was to give the word both meanings (as we already mentioned) .
The general rule applicable to this commandment is that in the land of Israel if one leaves a person on the gallows overnight one has violated both a positive and a negative commandment. The negative commandment is spelled out here in the words לא תלין נבלתו על העץ, whereas the positive aspect of the commandment are the words כי קבור תקברנו ביום ההוא, “but you are surely to bury him on that day.”
It seems to me that seeing Adam’s sin had been the cause that he did not spend the night in Gan Eden as we know from Psalms 49,13 אדם ביקר בל ילין, “Adam does not even spend a single night in the precious place” (as interpreted in Sanhedrin 38), man should not have qualified for all this consideration, but, on the contrary, his body deserved to be displayed overnight. The Torah teaches us with this legislation that despite such considerations it applies different yardsticks in its immeasurable wisdom as explained by the words כי קללת אלו-הים תלוי, “someone left hanging is a curse in the eyes of G’d.” According to the plain meaning of these words the implication is that it is proof that the person whose body has been hung must have blasphemed G’d the Creator, or he must have been guilty of serving idols. Otherwise he would not have been on display overnight. [Legally speaking, according to the majority opinion in Sanhedrin 45, only the body of a blasphemer was hung on the gallows for the balance of the day of his execution. Ed.]. We may therefore understand the word קללת as having a dual meaning, i.e. קללה, “curse,” and קלה, “treating lightly, as being of no value, belittling.” He who serves idols treats the Creator as if He were irrelevant.
Our sages in Sanhedrin 46 describe a person when he is in a depressed state of mind as saying קל עלי עלמא, “the world is ‘light’ for me,” as really meaning that the world is too heavy for him, but he does not want to utter something that could be self-incriminating. Similarly, here. The Shechinah does not want to “incriminate“ itself. Therefore the Torah phrases this sentiment as if it were bemoaning its own fate, whereas in reality it is expressing its pain at the fate that befell one of its creatures. G’d experiences pain when man has to die. We know this already from Exodus 3,7 where G’d tells Moses concerning the pain experienced by the Jewish people כי ידעתי את מכאוביו, “for I am keenly aware of its pains.” Another verse testifying to this empathy of G’d with the pain of the Jewish people is found in Isaiah 63,9 בכל צרתם לו צר, “in all its troubles, G’d is troubled.” We have to understand the words קללת אלו-הים in a similar fashion, describing G’d’s empathy with this particular individual’s fate.
The Talmud in Sanhedrin raises questions against the peculiar wording saying that if indeed this is the correct interpretation the Torah should have written קלת instead of קללת. The answer given is that the reason the Torah wrote the extra letter ל was to give the word both meanings (as we already mentioned) .