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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).

כי קללת אלוקים תלוי, when passers by view the corpse of a person who has been hanged they are in the habit of cursing the judge who decreed this penalty, or the relatives of the victim curse the judges accusing them of handing down a harsh verdict for a “minor” offence, such as the collecting of kindling on the Sabbath. (Numbers 15,33) If the Torah considered it asr necessary to warn the people against cursing their judges, (אלוהים לא תקלל, Exodus 22,27) it did so because it is familiar with people’s psyches, more so than people themselves. Therefore, to counteract such violation of the law not to curse judges, לא תלין נבלתו, “his corpse is not to spend the night unburied,” but כי קבור תקברנו...ולא תטמא את אדמתך, “you must proceed forthwith to bury him, for as long as he stays unburied people may contract severe ritual impurity through contact with that body, or through being under the same roof as the corpse.”

It is a positive commandment to hang a blasphemer and an idolater after they have been executed, as implied by Deuteronomy 21:23: "A person who is hung is cursing God." This refers to the blasphemer. With regard to an idolater, Numbers 15:30 states: "He blasphemes God."
A man is hung, but a woman is not hung, as implied by Deuteronomy 21:22: "When a man has sinned and is condemned to die, after he is executed, you shall hang him...."

How is the mitzvah of hanging carried out? After the convicted is stoned, a beam is implanted in the ground with a rafter protruding from it. The two hands of the corpse are intercrossed and he is hung close to sunset.
He is released immediately. If not, a negative commandment is transgressed, as Ibid.:23 states: "Do not let his corpse tarry overnight on the beam."

It is a positive mitzvah to bury the persons executed by the court on the day of their execution, as Ibid. states: "For you shall surely bury him on that day."
Not only those executed by the court, but anyone who leaves a deceased overnight without burying him transgresses a negative commandment. If, however, a burial is delayed overnight to honor the deceased, e.g., to bring a coffin or shrouds, there is no transgression.

A WOMAN SHALL NOT WEAR THAT WHICH PERTAINETH UNTO A MAN. This law was stated here because Scripture deals with going out to war. Women were created only to have children. If a woman joins men in going to war she will come to engage in illicit sexual relations on the way. The law that states neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment is similar. The reason for this law is as follows. If a male who does not have a full beard mixes with women, then he and they will have sexual relations without anyone knowing. This law indicates that the custom of Israel was for the garments of men to be unlike the garments of women. There was a definite difference between the garments. This is also the practice in most countries. Some say that our verse speaks of unnatural intercourse. However, there is no need for this interpretation. The fact is that God abominates the one who changes the works of the Lord.

כי יקח איש אשה, after the Torah has dealt with matters concerning the settling of the people in the Land of Israel, it turns to instructions designed to ensure that the Shechinah, benevolent Divine presence, will maintain its beneficial presence there. One of the most important elements in ensuring this is the avoidance of forbidden mating and the offspring of such couplings. The Torah therefore addresses both forbidden incestuous relations amongst Jewish partners, and intermarriage or living together of Jews and Non-Jews without the benefit of “marriage,” something which is anyway legally impossible. All of this belongs to the headingוהיה מחניך קדוש ולא יראה בך ערות דבר ושב מאחריך, “your encampment shall be holy. Let nothing unseemly be found among you so that He would turn away from you.” (23,15)

כי יקח איש אשה, "when a man takes a wife, etc." The Torah addresses average people even those who have forsaken the path of Torah because they claim that their time is too short and they are so preoccupied with earning a subsistence that they cannot observe all the Torah's restrictions. The words כי יקח איש אשה may be translated as "when a man decides to betroth himself to Torah (which is supposed to be his life's companion)," ובא אליה, "and he consummates this relationship," i.e. a relationship which had been initiated at the time all the Jewish souls stood at Mount Sinai when G'd revealed Himself and they received the Ten Commandments, and now ושנאה, he hates the path of Torah, and he does not want to grant her the things which are due to his "wife" as a matter of right as spelled out in Exodus chapter 21. When his "wife" remonstrates with him asking why she does not receive her due, her "husband" claims that she has not provided him with what he considers the obligation of any wife to her husband, i.e. food and drink. He also claims that he does not observe that his devotion to Torah has paid any dividends such as his economic situation improving. In fact he claims that when he looks around at all his friends who have not adopted the path of Torah they all seem to be better off than he. This is what the Torah alludes to by the sentence ושם לה עלילת דברים והוציא עליה שם רע ואמר את האשה הזאת לקחתי, "and he accuses her and gives her a bad name saying I have married this woman, etc." He does not deny having "married" the woman, i.e. having made a commitment to Torah. The "husband" claims "when I came near to her I did not find her hymen," i.e. a symbol of strength. He claims that people who relied on Torah were compelled to look elsewhere to find sustenance.

The Gemara poses yet another question on the same lines: Granted, according to the opinion of Rabbi Eliezer ben Ya’akov, this is at it is written: “And they shall spread the garment” (Deuteronomy 22:17). The father brings the sheet on which the couple had intercourse and shows that it is stained with blood. However, according to the opinion of the Rabbis, who claim that a husband can defame his wife even if they have not engaged in intercourse, what is the meaning of the phrase “And they shall spread the garment [hasimla]”?

Rabbi Abbahu said that the Rabbis interpret this expression as follows: They shall spread, i.e., examine, that which he placed against her [sam la]. In other words, they cross-examine the witnesses who testified against her, as it is taught in a baraita: “And they shall spread the garment”; this teaches that the witnesses of this husband come forward, and likewise the witnesses of that father come forward, and the court clarifies the matter like a new garment. Rabbi Eliezer ben Ya’akov says: The matters are as they are written, i.e., the verse refers to an actual cloth.

ופרשו השמלה AND THEY SHALL SPREAD THE CLOTH [BEFORE THE ELDERS OF THE CITY] — This is a figurative expression: they must make the matter as white (as clear) as a sheet (Sifrei Devarim 237:1; Ketubot 46a).

AND THEY SHALL SPREAD THE CLOTH. “This is a figurative expression meaning, the matter is as white [i.e., as clear] as a sheet.” This is Rashi’s language, which is the interpretation of Rabbi Yishmael found in the Sifre and Mechilta. But there is no need for it. For this was the custom in former time in Israel: they would bring the groom and bride into the bridal chamber and examine them, and the witnesses would guard them outside — these being termed shoshbinin (friends) by the Sages. When they separated, the witnesses would enter and take the cloth on which he laid with her and see the proof of her virginity. This [procedure] is known in the Talmud and in books of Agadah [homily], and they would call this cloth sudor. Therefore, Scripture states that her father and mother should spread the cloth which they took from the hands of the witnesses and say, These are the tokens of my daughter’s virginity. Now surely there is still a need to clarify matters with respect to many items about which Scripture spoke briefly. But the intent of [the Sifre and Mechilta in] stating “This is a figurative expression,” is only in accordance with the opinion which holds that the law concerning a man who defames his wife applies even if he has had no sexual relations with her. [It is according to this opinion that the phrase and they shall spread the cloth cannot be literal, for if no cohabitation took place, there can be no evidence in the sheet. Hence, the phrase is figurative, meaning that they are to prove their complaint “as clear as a sheet.”] But the plain meaning of Scripture is in accordance with the Sage that this law applies only after he has had conjugal relations with her [and in that case the phrase and they shall spread the cloth is to be understood literally]. And thus the Rabbis said in the Gemara: “Rabbi Eleazar ben Yaakov says, The term cloth is literal, and the law is in accordance with his words.” And such indeed is the sense of the section [of the Torah]. For Scripture stated first, Then the father of the maiden, and her mother, shall take and bring forth the tokens of the maiden’s virginity. Thus the verse is speaking of both [the father and mother]. Afterwards it reverts to the father alone: And the maiden’s father shall say etc. It then reverts and states, and ‘they’ shall spread the cloth — the two of them. Now, the reason [for these changes] is that [basically] the claim concerns only the father for [if the husband’s accusation is proven false,] the fine [of a hundred silver shekels, imposed upon the husband] belongs to the father. Scripture, however, made the mother a partner in this affair because women occupy themselves with the subject of the sheet, for it is they who are knowledgeable and expert in blood, and it is proper for the mother to take hold and bring it [the cloth] to court. But the claim, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife is that of the father, for the mother is not the adversary of her daughter’s husband. Or it may be that after the father presents his arguments in court, he takes hold of the cloth which his wife had brought under the corners of her garment and they both spread it before the court. Thus the mother is not mentioned in the section and did not appear in court at all except for the matter of “the cloth,” which is to be understood in its literal sense, as I have explained.

When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt on your house if anyone should fall from it.