Masechet Sanhedrin, Perek Yud Alef, Mishnah Vav, the last Mishnah in the Perek, covers the last four aveirot (transgressions) we mentioned in Mishnah Alef, where we said the punishment is chenek, which is strangulation by the Bet Din (rabbinical court).
The Mishnah says, “HaMitnabe b'shem Avodah Zara.” Somebody gives a prophecy in the name of an Avodah Zara, an idol. “Ve'omer, kach amrah Avodah Zara.” They say, “The idol told me the following.” Even if the claim is that the idol told him the correct halakha (Jewish law), in line with the Torah—for example, he said, “The idol told me this pure thing is pure or this impure thing is impure”—this person is still guilty. He is giving a prophecy in the name of Avodah Zara, and therefore he is executed by strangulation.
We mentioned earlier that if you have a Na'arah ha-me'orasah, a Na'arah who is a 12-year-old girl and commits adultery while she is halakhically engaged, which is Erusin (halakhically engaged), but before she has Nisuin, which is halakhic marriage, then she is punished by stoning, not by strangulation. A case of a Na'arah, though, who did have Nisuin, who was fully married and committed adultery, is a case in which she would be executed by strangulation. We will list one exception to the rule: even if Nisuin did not fully happen, she still gets strangulation, as opposed to stoning.
The Mishnah says that a man has relations with another man's wife. Once she enters the husband's home for the purpose of Nisuin, even if she has never had relations with her husband, and another man has relations with her before she has relations with her own husband, the adulterer—the person who had relations with her—is eventually punished with strangulation, not by stoning. Nisuin has not happened yet. So technically she is still a Na'arah ha-me'orasah; she is still technically a 12-year-old girl who is only halakhically engaged. But we say the exception to the rule is that once she enters Reshut HaBa'al, once she enters her husband's domain, she is punished with chenek, strangulation, as opposed to stoning, and she is not subject to the same law as a regular Na'arah ha-me'orasah.
If you have Zomemim witnesses, who give false testimony about the married daughter of a Kohen (priest), claiming that she committed adultery, we punish those false witnesses with strangulation. A man who had relations with the daughter of a Kohen is also punished with strangulation. “Kol ha-zomemim makdimin le'otah mitah.” In all other cases of Zomemim witnesses—people who were plotting witnesses, who gave false testimony and tried to get somebody else punished—in the Bet Din, we go ahead and give them the same type of execution that they accused somebody else of a sin that the other person would have received. That's what the halakha is with Edim (witnesses), which we'll elaborate more on in Masechet Makkot.
The witnesses who gave false testimony about somebody to try to get them a certain punishment then receive that same punishment in turn. For example, let's say somebody falsely accused an individual of stealing 100 zuz (an ancient coin), and then they find out that he was a liar. The person who made the false accusation, who gave false testimony, then has to pay 100 zuz instead. Same thing with edim: if they were trying to get somebody killed through execution of chenek, of strangulation, they would also have to get chenek. Putting them to death in any other way would not be allowed.
But there's an exception. A zomem witness who testified that the daughter of a Kohen committed adultery: if the woman was technically guilty, the execution would be sereifah, would be burning. But when it comes to zomem witnesses who testified falsely about her, they're still put to death with strangulation. The reason for that is “u'vo'alah ala”: the man who had relations with a bat Kohen, the daughter of a Kohen, is also somebody who eventually is put to death through strangulation, as opposed to sereifah, through burning. Usually, when a man and woman commit adultery, they would receive the same punishment. But in this unique scenario, the man is killed with strangulation, and the woman is killed with burning.
What we say here is that the zomem witnesses, who are trying to plot against this couple—this man and this woman—and falsely accuse them of adultery, receive the same punishment as the man, not as the woman. Therefore, these witnesses would receive chenek, strangulation, as the man would have received if he was actually guilty, as opposed to sereifah, which is the punishment the bat Kohen, the daughter of the Kohen, would have received if she was guilty.
Hadran alach (We shall return to you) Masechet Sanhedrin.