Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa Mga Bilang 35:24

לא תהיה אחרי רבים לרעות, "Do not follow a multitude to do evil;" Our sages have offered a multitude of explanations on this verse none of which appear to address the plain meaning of the verse. I believe we need to understand this verse in terms of Numbers 35,24 and 25 ושפטו העדה…והצילו העדה. Our sages (Sanhedrin 4) comment there that when the court is to decide in matters which carry the death penalty there have to be a minimum of 23 judges in order that there could be a quorum (10) which indicts and a quorum which (may) exonerate. The extra number is designed to enable a majority to be present at all times. On folio 17 of the same tractate we are told that should all the judges indict unanimously the accused goes free.

ואין קוראין בתורה – in a community/congregation, and all of these, they are not done with less than ten [men], as it is written (Leviticus 22:32): “[You shall not profane My holy name,] that I may be sanctified in the midst of the Israelite people…”every matter of holiness does not take place with less than ten;.. It is written here, בתוך בני ישראל/in the midst of the Israelite people, and it is written there (Numbers 16:21): “Stand back from this community that I may annihilate them in an instant!” Just as there, it is ten, so here too, it is ten. (Interestingly, while the Bartenura commentary quotes the Talmud Megillah 23b, it omits the more familiar derivation for a Minyan being ten male Jewish adults, even as the Talmud does quote it there from Numbers 14:27: “How much longer shall that wicked community keep muttering against Me?” The community/עדה mentioned in the verse clearly refers to ten individuals, the ten spies who brought a negative report about their spy mission to the Promised Land. That analogy, based upon the word עדה /congregation or community is often then compared with Numbers 35:24 and 25, as is found in the Mishnah, Tractate Sanhedrin Chapter 1:6. Whereas, the interpretation quoted by Bartenura is based upon analogy of the word “בתוך/in the midst of.”).

If the court ruled and one of them knew that they had erred and said to the others, “You are making a mistake”, or if the mufla of the court was not there, or if one of them was a proselyte or a mamzer or a nathin or an elder who did not have children, they are exempt, for it says here (Lev 4:13) “congregation” and it says later on (Num 35:24) “congregation”; just as the “congregation” further on must be fit to issue rulings, so too the “congregation” mentioned here must be fit to issue rulings
If the court issued a [wrong] decision unwittingly and all the people acted unwittingly, they bring a bull. This first section is the classic case in which the court must bring the bull as a sin-offering (mentioned in Lev 4:14).