what does karet actually mean when the torah says a person is cut off? what is it, how does it work, and who does it apply to? and since teshuvah exists, what does karet even leave over, meaning can teshuvah undo karet or not?
what does karet actually mean when the torah says a person is cut off
by moi613 | Sep 1, 2026 | Hashkafa | 4 comments
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Thank you Rabbi, thank you very much.
Karet sounds very frightening because the Torah says ונכרתה הנפש ההיא, that the person or soul is “cut off.” But you have to learn what Chazal and the Rishonim actually mean by it rather than translating the word literally and inventing the rest.
First, karet applies to particular serious aveirot that the Torah specifically assigns that punishment to. Mishnah Keritot begins by listing thirty-six cases. For the normal prohibitions on that list, the Mishnah says:
על אלו חייבים על זדונם כרת ועל שגגתם חטאת
If done intentionally, the consequence is karet; if done accidentally, the person brings a korban chatat. So we are talking about an intentional violation, not somebody who made an innocent mistake. There are also two positive mitzvot where deliberate failure can carry karet: Korban Pesach and milah.
What exactly is karet?
There are different descriptions in Chazal and the Rishonim, and I would not pretend that there is one simple physical formula.
The Ramban, in Sha’ar HaGemul, discusses this at length. He says something extremely important: the idea of the soul being completely lost does **not** apply automatically to every person who commits an aveirah carrying karet.
He gives the example of a genuine tzaddik whose yetzer hara overpowered him and he intentionally ate a kezayit of chelev, which carries karet. The Ramban says that this does not mean that the man’s soul is now destroyed and he has lost Olam HaBa. Depending upon the person’s overall spiritual condition, karet can affect the person’s life in this world, his experience after death, or, in the most extreme categories, both.
The Ramban then makes the point explicitly:
הא בשאר הכריתות אינו כן
The ordinary cases of karet are **not** the same as the extreme cases of someone who has fundamentally cut himself off from Hashem through kefirah, avodah zarah, rejection of Torah, and similar categories.
So do not read “this aveirah has karet” as meaning: “He did this once, therefore his soul is permanently annihilated.”
That is not what the Ramban says.
And then comes teshuvah.
The Rambam could hardly be clearer:
התשובה מכפרת על הכל
Teshuvah atones for everything. He says that even someone who was a rasha his entire life and did teshuvah at the end is not held to his previous wickedness.
For aveirot carrying karet, there is a process of complete kapparah. Based on Yoma 86a, the Rambam says that if a person committed an aveirah carrying karet and did teshuvah, then teshuvah and Yom Kippur suspend the punishment, and yissurin complete the kapparah. (Hilchot Teshuvah 1:4.)
That does not mean the teshuvah “didn’t work” until suffering arrives. It means there are different stages of kapparah for different levels of aveirah.
And the Rambam later states the principle even more dramatically:
אין לך דבר שעומד בפני התשובה
Nothing stands in the way of teshuvah.
He says that even someone who denied the fundamentals his entire life and finally returned sincerely before death has a share in Olam HaBa. (Hilchot Teshuvah 3:14.)
So certainly an ordinary aveirah carrying karet is not beyond teshuvah.
I think the mistake people make is imagining karet as some irreversible spiritual death sentence that is stamped on a person the moment he sins.
That is not the system.
Karet tells you that the Torah considers this a very serious category of aveirah and that, if left unresolved, it carries serious consequences from Hashem rather than punishment administered by a human Beit Din.
But the consequence depends on the person, his overall spiritual condition, and what happens afterward.
And teshuvah changes everything.
So if somebody committed an aveirah carrying karet, the response is not despair and certainly not, “My soul is finished.”
The response is teshuvah.
Recognize what happened, stop doing it, regret it, return to Hashem, and move forward.
That is exactly what teshuvah was created for.
Hello,
It is important to mention that the Rambam explain more about the concept of Karet in the Moreh Nevuchim and the way he explain it there is, in my opinion, more clear and maybe more appealing to modern minds.
He says that Karet occurs when you didn’t update your intellect about G-d and his creation, so, in my understanding, just when you don’t do anything is when you get actual Karet, but by doing something to the best of your habilities you will experience the Olam Haba in some level. Is not about a transaction for certain sins tha carry Karet, but the whole picture. You can have those Karet stains but many other qualities that give you the aprehension to G-d.
Is this a correct lecture of this topic?
Thank you. There is certainly a great deal more written about karet, Olam HaBa, Mashiach, and all of these subjects. Anyone who wants to go deeply into them should sit down, open the sefarim, and learn them properly.
But for purposes of this website, I am not trying to give a complete course on what exactly happens in Olam HaBa, how every form of karet operates, or precisely what will happen when Mashiach comes. There are many sources, many explanations, and in some areas things are simply not as clear as people sometimes make them sound.
My purpose in the original answer was much narrower. I wanted to correct the simplistic picture of an angry God mechanically punishing someone forever because of one aveirah.
When it comes to practical Halachah, or basic hashkafic ideas that affect how a person actually lives every day, I am very willing to go deeper because those questions have immediate practical meaning and can often be clarified from the sources.
But karet, Olam HaBa, Mashiach and the exact mechanics of the next world are not subjects I intend to map out in detail here.
There is plenty to learn. Open the sefarim and learn it.
As for exactly what Olam HaBa looks like, I am willing to wait until I get there and find out.