Just as it is a mitzvah to execute a person who is obligated to be executed; so, too, it is a positive commandment to give lashes to a person who is obligated to receive lashes, as Deuteronomy 25:2 states: 'And the judge should cause him to fall and will have him beaten in his presence.' Although transgressions punishable by lashes are adjudicated by three judges, lashes are equivalent to execution.
Lashes are administered in the present age in any place, according to Scriptural Law in the presence of three judges who were given semichah. This punishment is not, however, administered in the presence of three ordinary people.
A person is not punished by lashes unless his transgression was observed by witnesses and they administered a warning to him. The witnesses are questioned and cross-examined in the same manner as they are in cases involving capital punishment. The following laws apply when a person transgresses a negative commandment that can be corrected by a positive commandment. Before the transgressor violates the negative commandment, witnesses must administer a warning, telling him: 'Do not perform this activity. If you perform it and do not fulfill the positive commandment associated with it, you will receive lashes.' If, after receiving such a warning, the transgressor violates the commandment and does not fulfill the positive commandment, he receives lashes. Although the warning involved uncertainty, - for if he fulfills the positive commandment, he will be released unpunished - an uncertain warning is considered as a warning.
The following rules apply when a person performs a prohibited act that is punishable both by lashes and execution by the court, e.g., he slaughtered an animal and its offspring on the same day as a sacrifice to a false divinity. If he was warned that his act is punishable by execution, he is stoned to death and is not given lashes, for he is obligated for a more severe judgment. If he was given a warning only for lashes, he receives lashes.
🔱 When Lashes Apply
Lashes require two witnesses and a warning. If the offense also carries a death penalty, the more severe punishment applies — death or lashes, not both.
There is no need for the two witnesses who obligate a person for lashes, to observe other than at the time the transgression is committed. The prohibition itself, by contrast, can be established on the basis of one witness. What is implied? One witness said: 'This substance is fat from the kidneys, 'These grapes were grown together with grain in a vineyard, 'This woman is a divorcee or a zonah." If a person partook of this food or had relations with these women after he was warned, he receives lashes, despite the fact that the essence of the prohibition was established by one witness. When does the above apply? When he did not contradict the witness when he established the prohibition. If, however, he said: "This is not fat," "She is not a divorcee," and then he partook of the food or had relations with the woman after his denial, he does not receive lashes until the prohibition was established through the testimony of two witnesses.
If the person remained silent when the one witness testifies to establish the prohibition, and after he violated the transgression and was warned, he issued a claim to contradict the witness, his words are not accepted. Instead, he receives lashes.
👁️ One for Status, Two for Action
One witness suffices to establish the nature of a prohibition. But two witnesses must observe the act itself to obligate lashes. Silence at the time of testimony is binding.
How are lashes administered? The transgressor's two hands are bound to a pillar on either side. The community attendant takes hold of his clothes and pulls downward. If they tear at the front, that is satisfactory; if the tear at the sides, that is satisfactory. He continues until he uncovers his heart. The rationale is that he should not administer lashes on his garment, as indicated by Deuteronomy 25:2: "And he shall strike him," i.e., "him," and not his garment. A stone is placed behind him. The attendant who administers the lashes stands on it. He holds a strap of calf's leather that is folded into two, and a second one, making four, and two straps of donkey leather attached to it that rise and descend with it. The strap is a handbreadth wide and it is long enough to reach the transgressor's belly. The handle of the strap is a handbreadth wide.
The man administering the lashes should be heavily endowed with knowledge and minimally endowed with physical power. He should lift up the strap with both his hands and strike him with one hand, with all his power. He should strike him with a third of the lashes on his front, i.e., on his breast, between his nipples, and two thirds of the lashes on his back, one third on one shoulder and the other third on the other shoulder.
The person receiving the lashes should not stand, nor should he sit. Instead, he should bend over as Deuteronomy 25:2 states: "The judge shall cast him down." The verse continues: "And he shall strike him before him." This implies that the attention of the judge should be focused upon him. He should not look at other matters while having him lashed. From this, we learn that two people are never lashed at the same time.
⚡ The Lashing Ritual
The condemned bends forward, hands bound. The attendant uses a doubled calf-leather strap — one-third on the chest, two-thirds on the back. The senior judge reads verses; the second counts.
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Exceeding the Count: Responsibility and Broader Principle
Through the time the person is being lashed, the judge of the highest stature reads the passage Deuteronomy 28:58 "If you are not careful to heed and to perform... in an extraordinary way, God will increase the blows against you and your offspring...." He should have the intent to complete the passage with the lashes. If the lashes are not completed, he should return to the beginning of the passage and read it again - and again if necessary until all the lashes are administered. The judge of intermediate stature counts the lashes and the third judge tells the attendant before each blow: "Strike him." Throughout the entire time he administers the lashes, he does so following the judge's instruction.
If the person receiving the lashes dies while receiving them, the attendant administering them is not liable. If he added another blow to the estimate arrived at by the judges and the person receiving the lashes dies, the attendant is exiled. If he does not die, the attendant is held liable for transgressing a negative commandment, as Deuteronomy 25:3 states: "Do not add." Similarly, any other person who strikes a colleague violates a negative commandment. If a person who was given permission by the Torah to strike a colleague is warned not to strike him more than is required to punish his wickedness, certainly, this applies with regard to other people. For this reason, whenever a person strikes a colleague - even a servant - with a blow for which the victim would not receive a p'rutah in damages, the offender should be lashed. If, however, the blow is worth a p'rutah in damages, the offender is not lashed. The rationale is that he is obligated to make financial restitution, and a person never both receives lashes and is required to make financial restitution, as explained previously in several places.
⚠️ No Extra Blows
If the attendant adds even one blow beyond the count, and the condemned dies, the attendant is exiled. This principle extends: anyone who strikes another without permission violates a Torah prohibition.
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🎓 Key Principles
Chapter 16
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Lashes Stand in Place of Execution Though adjudicated by only three judges, lashes are positioned as an equivalent to capital punishment — a serious Torah-level obligation, not a minor disciplinary measure. The mitzvah to flog is parallel to the mitzvah to execute.
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Bifurcated Evidence Standards The Torah's evidentiary system is nuanced: one witness can establish the prohibited nature of a substance or relationship, but two witnesses are required to confirm the moment of transgression itself. Context determines the standard.
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Scripture Recited During Lashing As lashes are administered, the senior judge reads from Deuteronomy 28 — the passage of curses — intending to complete it in sync with the lashes. This transforms a physical punishment into a spiritual reckoning.
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The Prohibition Against Unnecessary Blows If the Torah commands restraint even when striking a legally condemned person, how much more so when striking anyone else. The verse 'Do not add' teaches a universal principle against physical aggression, binding for all people.