Chapter 18 – Who Receives Lashes and Special Punitive Measures

Overview

This chapter defines which transgressions incur lashes, exceptions to the rule, and special cases such as repeated offenses, lack of acceptance of warning, and crimes punished by zealots. It also clarifies that lashes or execution require two witnesses and cannot be based on confession alone.

Summary of Each Numbered Halacha

Halacha 1 – Transgressions Liable for Lashes

Anyone who violates a negative commandment punishable by karet (e.g., eating forbidden fats, blood, or chametz on Passover) or death by Heaven (e.g., eating untithed produce, a defiled priest eating pure terumah), or any prohibition involving an action (e.g., eating meat with milk, wearing sha’atnez) is flogged.

Exception: Prohibitions without an action (e.g., gossip, revenge, false oaths) do not incur lashes.

Halacha 2 – Exceptions to Lashes

No lashes for:

• Prohibitions without an action (except swearing falsely, exchanging sacred items, or cursing with God’s name).
• Prohibitions linked to capital punishment (e.g., adultery, Sabbath labor).
• Prohibitions requiring restitution (e.g., theft).
• Prohibitions corrected by a positive command (e.g., sending away the mother bird).
• General prohibitions (lav shebichlalot).
  All other negative commandments incur lashes.

Halacha 3 – General Prohibitions Explained

A general prohibition includes multiple acts under one command (e.g., “Do not eat over the blood”). If the Torah later separates them or oral tradition divides them, lashes apply to each. Example: “Do not eat it raw or cooked” counts as one unless divided by tradition; “Bread, parched grain, and fresh kernels” are three separate lashes.

Halacha 4 – Repeated Offenses and Confinement

If someone repeatedly violates a karet prohibition and receives lashes twice, on the third offense he is not flogged but confined in a small cell (kippah) with minimal food until death.

Halacha 5 – Failure to Accept Warning

If warned and he nods or remains silent without accepting liability, he is not executed or flogged. After three such repeated offenses, he is confined in a cell until death. All who refuse to accept warning receive rabbinic lashes (makkat mardut), even for rabbinic prohibitions.

Halacha 6 – Crimes Punished by Zealots

Certain acts are punished by zealots without court involvement:

• Stealing sacred vessels.
• Cursing using sorcery.
• Intercourse with a non-Jewish woman.
• Similarly, a priest serving while impure is killed by young priests outside the Temple.
  Rule: Court does not execute or flog based on confession—only on testimony of two witnesses. Cases like Joshua killing Achan or David killing the Amalekite were exceptional rulings or royal authority.