The blasphemer is not liable unless he utters the [Divine] Name. Said R’ Yehoshua ben Karchah: Each day they examine the witnesses by means of a pseudonym —- “May Yose smite Yose.” [When] the case is completed, they may not kill [based] upon a pseudonym. Rather, they send everyone out and ask the most eminent of them and say to him, “State explicitly what you heard,” and he says [it]. The judges stand on their feet and rend [their garments] and do not repair [them]. The second says: I too [heard] as he did; and the third says: I too [heard] as he did.

The idolater [is liable] whether he serves, slaughters, burns [an offering], pours a libation, bows down, accepts it upon him-self as a deity, or says to it, “You are my god.” However, one who embraces, kisses, sweeps, sprinkles, washes, anoints, clothes, or shoes [it] transgresses a negative commandment. One who vows in its name or upholds in its name transgresses a negative commandment. Defecating to Baal Peor —- this is its service. Throwing a stone at Markolis —- this is its service.