Sanhedrin 53: Betrothed/Married Adulterous Women; Who is Executed Via Stoning

The rabbis ask more specific questions about which execution accompanies which conviction.  There are a number of crimes that the rabbis address.  For example, regarding adulterous behaviour of a married woman versus a betrothed woman, the rabbis attempt to understand if they are punished differently and if so, who is punished in which way.  In this case, the Torah provides only brief indications of their punishments.  Not only do the rabbis claim that they are punished differently, they claim that the married woman is punished with greater leniency.  Their logic is present, but not flawless.

The Gemara stresses that the Torah provides us with four clear methods of execution: stoning, burning, strangulation and decapitation.  The Torah does not tell us explicitly which punishment is more severe than the other.  Thus the rabbis search for clues to tell them how to punish those not mentioned in the Torah - sub-crimes of other crimes, for example, like a betrothed woman and a married woman's adulterous behaviour.  

Our new Mishna tells us which transgressors are stoned to death:

• one who engages in intercourse with his mother
• one who engages in intercourse with his father's wife
• one who engages in intercourse with his daughter-in-law
• one who engages in intercourse with a male
• one who engages in intercourse with an animal
• one who blasphemes
• one who engages in idol worship
• one who gives his children to molech, an idol worshipped by passing children through fire
• a necromancer or a sorcerer, who claim to communicate with the dead regarding the future
• one who desecrates Shabbat
• one who curses his father or his mother
• on who engages in intercourse with a betrothed young woman
• one who incites idol worship
• one who subverts, who incites an entire city to idol worship
• a warlock
• a stubborn or rebellious son

There are further punishments given to one who unwittingly engages in intercourse with his mother who is also his father's wife: two sin-offerings.  One is for the prohibition against intercourse with one's mother and one is for the prohibition against intercourse with one's father's wife.  Rabbi Yehuda says that one is enough, for "his mother" refers to both.  

Further punishments are given to others as well.  One who unwittingly engages in intercourse with his father's wife while his father is married to hers liable cute to the former prohibition both during his father's lifetime and after his fathers' death whether the relationship between her and his father is one of betrothal or marriage.  As well, one gives two sin offerings after intercourse with his daughter-in-law.  The first is for transgressing the law against intercourse with one's daughter-in-law, and the other is for adultery with a married woman, both before or after the son's death.

The Gemara jumps into this Mishna by questioning whether the punishment should be lessened if one has intercourse with his mother when his parents were not suited to each other, ie. their union was not halachically permitted.  The rabbis argue that such a circumstance would have resulted in investigation and rectification or punishment many years earlier.  We begin to learn more about this question in an analogy to the yevam and yevama.  The yevama can release herself from her obligation to marry the yevam if they should not be married due to halacha.