פּירוש אויף דברים 21:23

“His corpse must not remain … overnight” [21:23]. When an Israelite was hanged, he was not allowed to hang overnight. This is for the honor of the Holy One, since they hanged someone the Holy One reviled, killed and cursed. Therefore, if he would hang for a long time, the people might talk about the one who blasphemed against the Holy One and it might become an embarrassment for the Holy One. Another explanation is that they should not let him remain hanging overnight, since the person is created in God’s image. Therefore, since the person is in God’s image, therefore it is a degradation of the Holy One that his image should hang. A parable. Two brothers who have a similar face and one can’t distinguish from the other. One became a king and the other became a robber. They hanged the robber. Whoever went by, thought that the king was hanging, since he looked the same. Therefore, the king commanded, take him down.⁶Rashi, Deuteronomy, 21:22–23.

כי קללת אלהים תלוי FOR HE THAT IS HANGED IS A קללת אלהים — i.e., a degradation of the Divine King, for man is made in His image and the Israelites are His children. A parable! It may be compared to the case of two twin brothers who very closely resembled each other: one became king and the other was arrested for robbery and was hanged. Whoever saw him on the gallows thought that the king was hanged (Sanhedrin 46b). — Wherever the term קללה occurs in Scripture it has the meaning of bonding in light esteem and despising, as e.g., (1 Kings 2:8) “[Shimei the son of Gera, a Benjamite of Bahurim] who cursed me with a severe curse (קללני קללה נמרצת)” (cf. II Samuel 16:5—8).

.לא תלין נבלתו על עץ , “you must not allow his corpse to remain hanging from a tree or gallows,” but bury him on the same day. The reason for this is so that people will not confuse this corpse with the one of a blasphemer whose body is to be displayed by hanging, and people might believe that the corpse they are looking at is that of a blasphemer. It would be considered as an insult to a mortal king if too much publicity would be given to someone who had mutinied against him even if he had already been punished for his crime. Similarly, it would be an insult to the immortal King, our Creator, if too much publicity were to be given to someone who had been audacious enough to insult the Creator through blasphemy. An alternate interpretation for the line: כי קללת אלוקים תלוי, people seeing the corpse of someone who had been executed for violating G-d’s commands would reason that the guilty party had already paid the price for what he had done; why subject him to indignities by displaying his body?A third interpretation for the above line: this line is addressed to the judges; people seeing the face of the corpse hanging, and knowing the judges who decreed the corpse’s execution might curse them for having executed him for a minor crime, or for not looking for a technicality to avoid having to convict that person of a capital crime.