How many lashes do we give him? Forty less one, as it is said (Deut. 25:2,3): in the number of forty —- the number that is close to forty. R' Yehudah says: He is flogged with the full forty lashes. Where is the extra one inflicted? Between his shoulders.

They may not assess him with any but lashes that may be divided by three. [If] they assessed him [to be able] to endure forty [lashes], [and] he was flogged some of them, and they then said that he was unable to endure forty, he is exempt. [If] they assessed him [to be able] to endure eighteen [lashes, but] after being flogged, they said that he was able to endure forty, he is exempt. [If] one committed a transgression consisting of two negative commandments: if they assessed him with one assessment, he is flogged and is exempt; otherwise, he is flogged, allowed to recover, and flogged again.

How do they flog him? He binds his two hands on the post on either side, and the attendant of the congregation seizes his garments —- if they tear, they tear, and if they split open, they split open —- until he bares his chest; and the stone is placed behind him. The attendant of the congre-gation stands upon it with a calfskin strap in his hand, doubled one into two and two into four, with two [other] straps running up and down in it.

Its handle should be a handbreadth, its width a handbreadth, and its tip should reach his navel. He strikes one-third [of the lashes] in the front and two-thirds in the back; and he does not strike him either standing or sitting, but bent over, as it is said (Deut. 25:2): And the judge shall make him fall. The flogger strikes with one hand with all his might.