וְהֽוֹצֵאתָ֣ אֶת־הָאִ֣ישׁ הַה֡וּא אוֹ֩ אֶת־הָאִשָּׁ֨ה הַהִ֜וא אֲשֶׁ֣ר עָ֠שׂ֠וּ אֶת־הַדָּבָ֨ר הָרָ֤ע הַזֶּה֙ אֶל־שְׁעָרֶ֔יךָ אֶת־הָאִ֕ישׁ א֖וֹ אֶת־הָאִשָּׁ֑ה וּסְקַלְתָּ֥ם בָּאֲבָנִ֖ים וָמֵֽתוּ׃
you shall take the man or the woman who did that wicked thing out to the public place, and you shall stone them, that man or woman, to death.—
Torah Temimah points to Sanhedrin 16b.
את האיש וגו׳. מה ת״ל, לומר לך איש ואשה אתה מוציא לשעריך ואי אתה מוציא עיר כולה לשעריך, מכאן שאין עושין עיר הנדחת אלא ע״פ ב״ד של שבעים ואחד.
English: “The man or the woman…” What does this teach? To tell you: a man or a woman you take out to your gates, but you do not take an entire city out to your gates. From here [we learn] that an ir ha-nidachat is judged only by a court of seventy-one.
The repeated emphasis on “the man or the woman” (an individual) implies that the ordinary local court of twenty-three is competent for individual idolaters, whereas the condemnation of an entire city requires the Great Sanhedrin of seventy-one.
Derash on the verse (Bavli) — not a formal named middah of the 13. The singular language is contrasted with the collective case of the ir ha-nidachat to establish the required court size.
An individual idolater is judged by a local court; an entire city can be condemned as an ir ha-nidachat only by the Great Sanhedrin of seventy-one.