A. The Torah enumerates specific offences, both religious and civil, punishable by the death penalty. However as any student of the Talmudic tractate “Sanhedrin” (The Laws of Courts) knows, a myriad of complex conditions must be met for the courts to actually mete out this punishment. It was more of a indication of the severity of the offense, than it was done in practice. In fact the Talmud says, “a Court which put one man to death in seventy years, was considered a murderous court”. (Since the destruction of the 2nd Temple, Jewish religious courts have not judged capital offences).
