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Mishnah thirteen continues to describe the whip and how the lashes are to be administered.
The handle is a handbreadth long and a handbreadth wide, its tip reaching to the edge of the [offender’s] abdomen.
Our mishnah continues to describe the whip used for lashing. Its handle was one handbreadth by one handbreadth. The tip of the whip, meaning the extra straps, should be long enough to reach the offender’s abdomen when the minister strikes him. The offender will be struck by the tip and not by the body of the whip, made of the cowhide.
He administers one-third [of the lashes] in front and two-thirds behind. He lashes him not in a standing or sitting position but stooping, as it says, “And the judge shall cause him to fall [stoop] down” (Deut. 25:2). He who administers the lashes with his one hand and with his whole force.
As we end this massechta we finally deal with the mechanism of flogging.