[Avodah] Eidut

[Zev Sero]

Micha Berger wrote:
> On Sun, December 10, 2006 9:00 am, Shoshana L. Boublil wrote:
> : Halachically, is a victim of a crime supposed to go to a Beit Din and report
> : the crime?
> : Does it change things if he knows who performed the crime?
> 
> Isn't this straightforward teviah, not eidus?
> 
> If one doesn't know the crime, who in bayis sheini society was charged with
> finding the criminal? The shoterim? I pictured them more as an executive
> branch than part of penology, but I have no idea where that picture came from.

Not even an executive branch.  Rashi says they are court officers, who
do the practical work of the judicial branch.  The king was the executive
branch, and before Shaul it didn't exist, and thus despite the existence
of batei din it was "ish kol hayashar be'enav yaaseh".

-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas