We leaned that in the first case of the Mishnah, if he received even part of the lashes before the court realized its mistake he is exempt from further lashers since he has been disgraced by whatever lashes he received until this point. However, if he did not yet receive any lashes from the first assessment, we wait until he recovers his health and THEN give him a proper evaluation...Why don't we just give him what we think he can handle now?! I think Rashash deals with this question but I couldn't make it out so clearly, and I am not sure if anyone else does. Thank you.
JS, USA
The Rashash suggests that only when the mistake was that he could not withstand any lashes do we have to wait for him to recuperate. However, if he is merely weak, then we do not have to wait, as you suggested, and we give him as many lashes as he can endure. The Rashash asserts that there is no logic to differentiate between someone who is naturally weak and someone who has been temporarily weakened by illness.
D. Zupnik