daf bit: Sanhedrin 53

[cellio]

The mishna on today's daf lists those for whom the death penalty is stoning. (There are four methods of execution in halacha, of which stoning is the most severe.) Stoning is for:

• a man who commits incest with his mother, his father's wife, or his son's wife, or a man who commits adultery with a betrothed maiden

• a man who sexually abuses another man or a beast, or a woman who commits bestiality (the g'mara here does not discuss what counts as abuse)

• a blasphemer, an idolater, or one who gives of his seed to Molech (Molech was a foreign god to whom people made child sacrifices)

• one who incites individuals to idolatry or seduces a whole town to idolatry

• a necromancer, wizard, or sorcerer (I'm unclear about the difference between the latter two)

• one who desecrates Shabbat

• one who curses his father or mother

• a wayward and rebellious son

(53a)

Comments

[cellio]

Necromancer: בעל אוב -- master of something (I don't know what אוב is; I would have expected מת, dead)


Wizard (says Soncino), sorcerer (says Sefaria): ידעוני -- this contains the root for "know"

Sorcerer (says Soncino), warlock (says Sefaria): מכשף

I used the Soncino translation in preparing this, but the Sefaria edition is online with both original language and translation, should you care to take a closer look. Scroll down until you see "MISHNA" on that page. (In the translation, words in bold are really there and the rest is editorial additions. The language of the talmud is very compact in places.)

I also see that the part about abusing another man is rendered differently in Sefaria's translation. My mishnaic Hebrew is (ahem) not good enough to adjudicate between the two.

Re ETA: who knew that the prior art had such a long lineage?