While the one who recites, says: if thou wilt not observe to do . . . Then The Lord Thy God shall make thy strokes pronounced, and the strokes of thy seed [etc.] and he goes back again to the beginning of the text [if necessary] and concludes with: but He, being full of compassion, forgiveth iniquity and destroyeth not; yea, many a time doth he turn his anger away and doth not stir up all his wrath, and again returns to the text: observe therefore, the words of this covenant and do them, that ye may make all that ye do to prosper. If the offender dies under his hand [stroke] He is exempt [from penalty]. If he gave him one more lash and the offender died, he goes into banishment. If the offender befouled himself either with faeces or urine, he is discharged. R. Judah says: faeces in the case of a man and urine in the case of a woman. |
מכות 3.14 |
All who have incurred [the penalty of] Kareth, on being flogged obtain remission from their punishment of Kareth; for it is said, forty he shall have him beaten he shall not exceed . . . lest thy brother shall be dishonoured before thine eyes, which shows that on having received the flogging he is [considered] `thy brother`: these are the words of R. Hananiah b. Gamaliel. And, said R. Hananiah b. Gamaliel, if in one transgression a transgressor forfeits his soul, how much more should one who performs one precept have his soul granted him? R. Simeon says that you can learn this from its own passage; for it is said [there]: [for whosoever shall do any of these abominations,] even the souls that do them shall be cut off from among their people; and there [in the preamble] it says: Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and mine ordinances which if a man do, he shall live by them, which means that one who desists from transgressing is granted reward like one who performs a precept. R. Simeon b. Rabbi says: behold Holy Writ says, only be steadfast in not eating the blood . . . and thou shalt not eat the life with the flesh . . . [That it may go well with thee and with thy children after thee when thou shalt do what is right in the eyes of The Lord]. Now, if in the case of blood for which man`s soul has a loathing, anyone who refrains therefrom receives reward, how much more so in regard to robbery and incest for which man`s soul has a craving and longing shall one who refrains therefrom acquire merit for himself and for generations and generations to come, to the end of all generations! |
מכות 3.15 |
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