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the laws of the sanhedrin as set down by the Torah. However, when
it comes to direct judgment by the ruler we do not require any of
these conditions…and under royal judgment a person can be put to
death by the testimony of his relatives, or even on the basis of his own
admission and without having been warned. Because royal judgment
is only carried out after ascertaining the truth for otherwise, were we
to conduct everything according to Torah law, the world would be
desolate because murderers and their accomplices would abound...
1 and whoever has been appointed by the king to supervise this can
judge and employ such measures with the royal prerogative, because
through such measures a king upholds law and order in his country.”

The source of the Rashba’s comments is the gemara in Bava Metzia
(83b) where we find that Rabbi Elazar ben Rabbi Shimon would hand
over Jewish robbers to the ruler and the authorities would sentence
them to death. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korcha said to him,“Vinegar the
son of wine [i.e. unworthy son of a worthy father], until when will you
give over the people of our God to be put to death?” Rabbi Elazar re-
sponded,“I am purging the vineyard of thorns.” He (Rabbi Yehoshua
ben Korcha) responded, “Let the Owner of the vineyard (Hakadosh
baruch Hu) come and destroy the thorns!” Eliyahu Hanavi too, com-
plained to Rabbi Yishmael ben Rabbi Yosi, about his handing over
robbers to the ruler to be put to death. The Rashba understands that
Eliyahu Hanavi’s complaints were directed only at Rabbi Yishmael
ben Rabbi Yossi and Rabbi Elazar ben Rabbi Shimon who, in view
of their great piety, should have refrained from having people killed
for transgressions for which the Torah does not impose the death
penalty but these leading Torah sages did not err in the halachah,
for it was permitted for them to hand over the robbers to the ruler
“because a king upholds law and order with such measures.”

The Rashba thus permits handing over robbers to the king for
execution so that the world should not become desolate. In our case
too then, it would possibly be permitted to hand over murderers to
the authorities despite of the great likelihood that they will kill him.

See Einei Yitzchak (a commentary on Ein Yaakov, Bava Metzia
ibid.) where it is written, “Even though under Jewish law a robber

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