Which punishment is worse? TB Pesakhim 33

On yesterday’s daf TB Pesakhim 32 Rav Pappa first suggests that Abba Shaul holds that a non-kohan is only liable to replace the teruma and must also add a fine of 25% when he has eaten the measurement of an olive (כְּזַיִת -kezayit)[1] and the amount eaten is worth at least a prutah. Then the Gemara relates that he retracts this position and teaches that Abba Shaul only requires that the teruma be worth at least a prutah. A braita using a kal vehomer[2] proves that Rav Pappa retracted. Two types of punishment of death by God underpins whether this kal vehomer is valid or not. The first punishment is death at the hand of Heaven (מִיתָה בְּיָדֵי שָׁמַיִם-metah beyadai shemayim) and the second is being “cut off” (כָּרֵת- karet). This sugiyah continues on today’s daf TB Pesakhim 33.

The success of this kal vehomer hinges upon which punishment is worse. Death at the hand of Heaven (בְּמִיתָה בְּיָדֵי שָׁמַיִם-metah beyadai shemayim) is the punishment God decrees that person will not live out his allotted time on earth. Ramban in his commentary on Leviticus 18:20 “All who do any of those abhorrent things—such persons shall be cut off from their people.” defines karet. “But (in the case of) one who, as a result of this grave sin, now has more sins (in gravity) than his merits, the punishment of excision for this weighty transgression affects the soul that sins after it is separated from the body and is cut off from life in the World of Souls (meaning the soul’s destruction)… These sinners do not suffer bodily excision, but may sometimes live to reach many days, even old age and hoary heads, as it is written “and there is a wicked man that prolongs his life his evil doing.” (Ecclesiastes 7:15)… And there is a still more stringent form of excision, where both the body is cut off (from life in this world) and the soul (even from life in the World to Come which is the world after resurrection)….”[3]

As you can plainly see karet is worse. May we all be spared either punishment.

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[1] A kezayit equals 1.27 fl oz (38 ml) or approximately the size of a golf ball (40 ml) or a roll of quarters (37 ml)

[2] This is the argument "a minori ad majus" or "a majori ad minus".

[3] Ramban, Commentary on the Torah, translated and annotated by Rabbi Dr. Charles B Chavel, Shilo; 1974, page 275-280 At the very end of this commentary, Ramban lists 36 sins for which the Torah prescribes karet.