In Mishnah Dalet, we listed all the different Averot (transgressions) for which a person would get Sekilah, stoning. Here, we’ll continue listing them and elaborate on them. Somebody who worshipped an idol, as we mentioned earlier, gets Sekilah. Somebody who worshipped an idol in the way it is usually worshipped, or somebody who slaughtered a korban (offering) to that idol, brought ketoret (incense) to that idol, poured wine to the idol, or bowed down to the idol, even if that is not the usual way of worshipping it—all these people would be stoned.
Or somebody says that he is accepting that idol on them to be a god, or tells the idol, “You are my god.” Those are the ways that a person would be executed by the Bet Din (Jewish court) with Sekilah, because those are genuine, full forms of acceptance and worship. But somebody who hugs an idol, kisses it, sweeps the floor in front of it, sprinkles water on the dirt so that dirt will not blow all over it, rubs it with oil if they wash it, dresses it, or puts shoes on it violates a negative commandment. They are not allowed to worship it. But these are not full-fledged ways of worship, so we do not put the person to death for any of these last types of actions.
If somebody takes a vow in the name of an idol, saying, “All the fruit is forbidden to me in the name of this idol,” or swears in its name, saying, “I swear by this idol that I didn’t do the following,” they violate a negative commandment, but they are not put to death. So they’re mentioning the names of other gods, but we’re not putting them to death because these are not also genuine ways of worship. We mentioned at the start of the Mishnah that if you worship an idol in its normal way—every type of idol had a specific type of worship—then you also receive stoning. And now we’ll list two examples of that type.
Somebody who goes to the bathroom in front of Baal Peor is executed because that’s the normal way to worship Baal Peor. If somebody throws a stone at an idol called Markulis, this is the usual way of worship, so that person would be executed. Even if a person didn’t have in mind to do it—let’s say he was trying to disgrace the idol and threw a stone at it or went to the bathroom in front of it—he would still have to bring a korban chatat (sin offering), because it’s like he worshipped the idol by mistake. Even though he had no intention, it’s a sin. He still has to bring a korban chatat for worshipping by mistake.