Kareth

The Hebrew term kareth ("cutting off", Hebrew: כרת‎‎, [kaˈret]) is derived from the Hebrew verb karat ("to cut off"). The noun form does not occur in the Hebrew Bible. The plural, Kerithoth ("Excisions"), is the seventh tractate of the fifth order Kodashim of the Mishnah. In the Talmud kareth means not necessarily physical "cutting off" of life but extinction of the soul and denial of a share in the world to come.

In the Hebrew Bible to "cut off" (Hebrew: כרת‎‎ karath), is a form of punishment which may mean killing or excluding from the people. The Book of Numbers states that anyone who sins deliberately or high-handedly is to be cut-off from the community:

Examples of sins incurring kareth include breaking the fast on the Day of Atonement, sexual violations, and ritual impurities. Anyone who refused to join with Abraham in being circumcised as a sign of the covenant being made by God with Abraham and his descendants was to be cut off from the people.

It is the punishment for serious crimes, some of which are also punishable by death by a human court. Kareth can mean dying young (before the age of 60), dying without children, or the soul being spiritually "cut off" from your people after death. According to Nachmanides both definitions are accurate, and are applicable according to the nature of the person that committed the offense. If he was generally a good person, meaning that the good in him outweighed the evil, he is punished with dying before his time, unless he had other virtues that are cause for him to merit living out his full life, but retains his portion in the world to come. However if the evil in him outweighed the good, he is then granted a good and lengthy life to reward him for the good that he did in his life, but upon death he will have no portion in the world to come. The medieval scholar Rabbi Yonah Gerondi in his famous ethical work The Gates of Repentance says that the Torah itself makes a distinction as to which form of kareth is to be applied for a particular offense. In most cases the Torah uses the term such as that in Leviticus 18:29; the persons who commit them shall be cut off from among their people, which he says is a reference to a punishment in this world. However when the Torah uses a term such as that in Numbers 15:31; that person will be cut off completely, his offense will remain with him, that penalty refers to being spiritually cut off after death.

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