Halakhah su Levitico 20:10

And also of this type is His, may He be exalted, saying that a betrothed maiden that is promiscuous is [killed] by stoning; but [if she is] the daughter of a priest, by burning - which are the filling out of the details of the law of [adultery with] a married woman. And everyone, who I have heard of already, erred in this - counting a married woman as a commandment, a betrothed maiden as [another] commandment and the daughter of a priest as [yet another] commandment, when the matter is not like this. Rather it is as I shall explain. And that is that His, may He be exalted, saying, "you shall not commit adultery" (Exodus 20:13), is a commandment from the tally of the commandments - and the tradition came that this negative commandment is the prohibition of the married woman. Afterwards, Scripture explained that one who violates this negative commandment is killed; and that is its saying, "they shall surely be killed, the adulterer and the adulteress" (Leviticus 20:10). Afterwards, Scripture filled in this detail and the conditions of this issue and judgement. So it stipulated conditions and said that that which is stated - "they shall surely be killed, the adulterer and the adulteress" - has distinctions: If she was a married woman that was the daughter of a priest, she is burned; if she was a betrothed virgin maiden, she is stoned; and if she was married but was not the daughter of a priest, she is strangled. But it is not that the stipulations of the laws of [its] death penalty expand it into several commandments; for we have not exited the prohibition of the married woman in all of this. And in Sanhedrin (Sanhedrin 51b:10), they said in explanation, "All were included in 'the adulterer and the adulteress': [Then] the verse singled out the daughter of an Israelite for stoning and the daughter of a priest for burning." With this, they meant that regarding the prohibition of a married woman, all are included in that which Scripture said about them, "they shall surely be killed, the adulterer and the adulteress" - however Scripture differentiated about this death, and had some people to be burned and some of them to be stoned. And were it appropriate to count the detail of a commandment when it is written in the Torah, we would have been required to not list one who kills a soul by mistake being exiled as a single commandment, since Scripture has already detailed this commandment (Numbers 35:16-28). So we would have also counted the statement of Scripture, "But if he strikes him with a metal instrument," as one commandment. And the second commandment would have been its saying, "And if he struck him with a stone tool." And the third commandment would have been, "Or struck him with a wooden instrument." And the fourth commandment would have been its saying, "The blood-avenger shall put the killer to death." And the fifth would have been its saying, "Or if he pushed him with hatred." And the sixth would have been its saying, "or hurled something at him on purpose." And the seventh would have been its saying, "Or if he struck him with his hand in enmity." And the eighth would have been its saying, "But if suddenly without enmity." And the ninth would have been its saying, "or hurled any object at him unintentionally." And the tenth would have been, "Or any deadly object of stone without seeing." The eleventh would have been, "and he dropped it upon him and he died, though he was not an enemy of his." The twelfth would have been, "And the congregation shall protect the killer." The thirteenth would have been, "and the congregation shall bring him back to his city of refuge." The fourteenth would have been, "and there he shall remain until the death of the high priest." The fifteenth would have been, "But if the killer surely goes outside." The sixteenth would have been, "and after the death of the high priest, the killer may return." And had we done this with each and every commandment, the number of commandments would have added up to more than two thousand. And the damage [of doing so] is clear, since they are all details of the topic. But the commandment that is counted is the law of one who kills a soul by mistake, and that is the law about which we have been instructed to evaluate the laws and details that are written about it. And likewise did God call them, regulations; and He did not call them, commandments - but said (Numbers 35:24), "And the congregation shall judge between the killer and the blood-avenger according to these regulations."

He prohibited us from sexual intercourse with a married woman. And that is His, may He be exalted, saying, "And to the wife of your kinsman do not give your lying for seed to become unclean to her" (Leviticus 18:20). And there are distinctions about the punishment for one that transgresses this negative commandment: And that is that [in a case of] a married woman that was [just] a betrothed maiden, both of them are liable for stoning, as Scripture explained. But if she was fully married: If she was an Israelite and fully married, they are both liable for strangulation. However if she was the daughter of a priest and fully married, her law is [the punishment of] burning, and he - meaning the one who had intercourse [with her] - is [punished] with strangulation. And that is when the testimony is ratified. But if he was inadvertent, he must sacrifice a fixed sin-offering. And the prohibition about this was already repeated with His saying, "you shall not commit adultery" (Exodus 20:13) - meaning to say with this, not to have sexual intercourse with a married woman. And the language of the Mekhilta (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 20:13:2) is, "'You shall not commit adultery' - why is it stated? Since it states, 'The adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death' (Leviticus 20:10), we understand the punishment. From where [do we know] the prohibition? [Hence] we learn to say, 'You shall not commit adultery.' It is the same for the man and for the woman." And this is not like, "And to the wife of your kinsman" - for that is a prohibition that does not include an adulterer and an adulteress, but is a prohibition for the adulterer alone. And likewise with the other sexual prohibitions. It was impossible that they not derive [the prohibition] also for the woman, from His saying, "you (plural) shall not approach to uncover [their] nakedness" (Leviticus 18:6): "Behold there are two (it is plural)! To prohibit a man with a woman and a woman with a man" (Sifra, Acharei Mot, Chapter 13:1). And in the Gemara, Sanhedrin (Sanhedrin 51b), they said, "All [adulterers] were included in, 'The adulterer and the adulteress.' Scripture singled out the daughter of a priest for burning, and the betrothed maiden for stoning." And the explanation of this matter has already been discussed in the introduction to this essay.