Q&A: Stoning
Stoning
Question
Hello Michi, I’d be glad if you could answer, if you have an answer.
These are the four places where there is a commandment of stoning:
Deuteronomy 17
Leviticus 24
Deuteronomy 21
Numbers 15
I understand idolatry, but it’s hard for me to understand: why does the Torah command such a severe punishment as stoning דווקא for offenses like the stubborn and rebellious son or Sabbath desecration? Why not make do with a lighter punishment, like excommunication, imprisonment, or a fine? What justice or morality stands behind killing by stones specifically? How does that fit with the idea that God is compassionate and gracious?
Answer
It has nothing whatsoever to do with the question of being compassionate and gracious. There are capital punishments in Jewish law because the transgressions in question are apparently severe. In order to actually execute someone, there are many conditions (testimony, intentionality, warning and acceptance of the warning, an orderly judicial process that tries to acquit him), and someone who meets them indeed deserves the punishment.
Discussion on Answer
In general, according to your approach, Rabbi Michael Abraham, there is no authority with the power to obligate people to believe something. So in your view, what is the meaning of the commandments of faith and the prohibition and punishment of idolatry?
Does a Sabbath desecrator deserve stoning? It doesn’t really matter to me how much bureaucracy is required, but the law exists.
Arnon, it has no meaning, and in my opinion there is no punishment for it.
Haggai, indeed he does. In any case, if the law exists and is not actually carried out, that does not indicate any moral problem. There is no moral problem in declarations of punishment.
I’d appreciate an explanation of the answer you wrote to Arnon’s question.
What do you mean there is no punishment for it? It explicitly says there is a punishment.
A punishment for idolatry is not given to someone who is coerced, even if he is coerced in his mind (that is, if that is truly what he thinks). Punishment applies only to someone who worships due to the evil inclination despite being aware of the prohibition and of the obligation to worship God.
If the commandment of faith has no meaning, what is the content of the commandment?
It has no content, and therefore there is no such commandment. Maimonides was mistaken, in my opinion. Or he meant something else that I do not understand.
By the way, in my view idolatry is the one whose severity is least understandable.