2,317. An Ox Condemned to Stoning

Maachalos Assuros 4:21

The following skins are like meat: that of humans; of domesticated pigs; a camel’s hump that has never borne a burden – since it hasn’t reached the age the serve as a pack animal, the skin is still soft; the skin of the genitals; below the tail; of a fetus; of a hedgehog, chameleon, lizard or snail. If any of these skins are soft, they’re like meat in all ways, both vis-à-vis the prohibition against eating them and vis-à-vis ritual purity and impurity.

Maachalos Assuros 4:22

Regarding an ox sentenced to death by stoning, Exodus 21:28 says, “Its meat may not be eaten.” Why would one think that it could be eaten after being stoned, seeing that it’s a neveila? Rather, the Torah is telling us that once the ox has been sentenced, it is rendered prohibited like a non-kosher animal. If someone hurried and slaughtered it, it’s prohibited to benefit from it and if one eats an olive-sized piece of meat from it, he’s liable to lashes. Once it’s been executed by stoning, it may not be sold, nor fed to dogs or non-Jews as per “may not be eaten.” One may use the dung of an ox condemned to stoning. If, after sentencing, it’s found that the ox wasn’t really liable to execution, such as if the witnesses who testified against it were found to be invalid, then the ox is sent to pasture with the herd. If the discovery was made after the ox was stoned, one may derive benefit from it.