Q&A: Excommunication Without a Religious Court
Excommunication Without a Religious Court
Question
Hello Rabbi Abraham,
I heard in a Torah class that there are 24 transgressions for which a person is to be excommunicated, and that out of those 24, there are two transgressions that bring a person to excommunication even without a religious court actually imposing it: striking another person, and wasting seed. My question is: if before I repented I did those things, am I now considered excommunicated and therefore unable to join a prayer quorum and disqualified from giving testimony? And if so, how is the excommunication lifted?
Best regards,
Answer
To the best of my knowledge, there is no excommunication without someone imposing it. What is written is that the one imposing the ban does not have to be a religious court, but can be anyone else. But as long as no one has excommunicated you, you are not under excommunication. Especially since nowadays it is not at all customary to excommunicate people for this, so certainly there is no implicit excommunication.
Of course, one should repent for every sin, regardless of excommunications.
All the best and good luck,
Michi