A sage who rebels against the word of the court, as it is stated: If there shall arise a matter too difficult for you to judge, etc. There were three courts there: one sat at the entrance to the Temple Mount; one sat at the entrance to the Courtyard; and one sat in the Chamber of Hewn Stone. They come to the one at the entrance to the Temple Mount, where he says, “Thus I have expounded and thus my colleagues have expounded; thus I have taught and thus my colleagues have taught.” If they have heard, they tell them. If not, they come to those at the entrance to the Courtyard, where he says, “Thus I have ex-pounded and thus my colleagues have taught.” If they have heard, they tell them. If not, they all come to the High Court in the Chamber of the Hewn Stone, from where Torah goes forth to all Israel, as it is stated: From that place that HASHEM shall choose. [If] he returned to his town and continued to teach in the same manner as before, he is exempt; but if he ruled that it be done, he is liable; as it is stated: But the man who will act willfully —- he is not liable until he rules that it be done. A disciple who ruled that it be done is exempt; thus his stringency is his leniency.

There is a greater stringency attached to the words of the scribes than to the words of the Torah. [If] one says there is no [mitzvah of] tefillin —- in order to transgress the words of the Torah —- he is exempt. [If he says] there are five compartments [to tefillin] —- to add to the words of the scribes —- he is liable.

They do not execute him in the court of his town nor in the court at Yavneh. Rather, they bring him up to the High Court in Jerusalem and guard him until the festival and execute him during the festival, as it is stated: And the entire nation shall hear and shall fear, and they shall no longer sin willfully; [these are] the words of R’ Akiva. R’ Yehudah says: They do not delay this person’s judgment. Rather, they execute him immediately and write and send messengers to all places [saying], “So-and-so was sentenced to death by the court.”

A false prophet —- [is] one who prophesies concerning that which he did not hear or that which was not said to him; he is executed at the hands of man. But one who suppresses his prophecy, and one who disregards the words of a prophet, and a prophet who transgresses his own words —- are executed at the hand of Heaven, as it is stated: I shall demand it from him.