Here, the Mishnah is going to tell us what happens right before the stoning starts. The Mishnah says that when the person who was going to be put to death was four amot (cubits) away from the place of stoning, they took all of his clothes off. The Pasuk (verse) says that they should stone him. The rabbis learned from here that the word “him,” oto, tells us that it has to be him, his actual body, and that he can have no clothes on.
The reason for this halacha (Jewish law) is that we want to make sure he has a very swift and quick death. We’re nervous that he’s going to suffer if the clothes serve to pad him, and that it’s going to mean longer suffering for him. So, to prevent that extra suffering, the Torah tells us that his clothes have to be off when the stoning happens.
They cover the man who is being stoned in front to spare him the embarrassment of being fully undressed. They don’t want him to be more embarrassed than necessary, so they put a little cover right in front of him to cover his private area. They would cover the woman who is being stoned in front and in back. Both spots are considered private areas. They also want to make sure she doesn’t get embarrassed, so they would cover those areas as well.
During the stoning, this is the opinion of Rebbe Yehuda: that is still considered to be without clothes. The little bit of clothing the man has in front, and the woman has in front and in back, is not considered real clothing. It’s just to spare them that embarrassment. Both the man and the woman are fully undressed, besides those little patches of clothing. That is the opinion of Rebbe Yehuda.
The rabbis say that only the man is stoned without clothes, but the woman is not stoned when undressed. She is fully clothed when she is stoned. According to the Hachamim (rabbis), we learn this from the Pasuk: “Stone him.” We learn that this means he has to have no clothes on, but it applies only to oto. The word oto is him, which the rabbis say refers to him, but not to a her—to a man, not to a woman.