Makkot 23 – The Positive Value of Lashes

If one who is liable to excision (karet) is lashed, he become exempt from his excision, following the verse in the Torah, “and your brother will be demeaned before your eyes” - after he has been lashed, he is again like your brother – these are the words of Rabbi Chananyah ben Gamliel.

Excision (karet) is also translated as being cut off. One opinion is that it entails both the premature death of the sinner and the loss of his future generations. “Premature death” is death at the ages of fifty through fifty-nine, or even at the ages of sixty through seventy-nine if the death is sudden.

Rabbi Chananya ben Gamliel also said, “If a person who commits a single transgression punishable by being cutoff forfeits his life, then if he performs a single mitzvah, how much more so should his life be given to him.”

Rabbi Shimon says that you can derive this better. The verses say, “My laws by which you shall live … The souls that do incest will be cut off.” We see from here that whoever desists and does not do a transgression is given a reward of the one who performs a mitzvah.

Art: David The Younger Teniers - The Happy Soldier