Home -- Content: Series 7 (Laws) -- Translation: English -- Book: 1 (Tora) -- Part: 2 (Negative) -- Prohibition: 12 -- Text
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The Sharia of Moses in the TORA
Part 2 - The 365 Prohibitions of the Tora
12 - MAKING FIGURED STONES UPON WHICH TO PROSTRATE OURSELVES
The penalty of whipping for breach of this commandment is not incurred “unless one spreads out his hands and feet on the stone so that he lies completely stretched out across It.”.* By Rabbinical law, however, any kind of prostration is forbidden.
This prohibition has given rise to the custom of spreading mats, or any kind of stubble, over the stone floors of synagogues, to prevent contact between the faces of the worshippers and the stones when prostrations are performed on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.*