כָּרֵת, (= הִכָּרֵת, v. כָּרַתNif.) excommunication, extermination; (in Talm. law) divine punishment through premature or sudden death, opp. to מיתה בידי אדם capital punishment. Snh. 60ᵇ זובח … כ׳ הוא is not slaughtering consecrated animals outside of the Temple punishable with extinction?, opp. קטלא death by execution. M. Kat. 28ᵃ מת בחמשים שנה זו היא מיתת כ׳ if one dies at the age of fifty, that is death of divine visitation; Y. Bicc. II, beg. 64ᶜ בהִיכָּרֵת; Treat. S’maḥ. III, 8 בהִכָּרֵת. Ib. 10 וכי מה מודיענו שמיתתם בהכרת what is there to indicate that they died by divine visitation?; Y. l. c. 64ᵈ top שהוא בהיכרת.—M. Kat. l. c. נפקי לי מכ׳ I have escaped the punishment of kareth (being sixty years old). Ib. כ׳ דשני the kareth of years, premature death; כ׳ דיומי the k. of days, sudden death. Ḥull. 31ᵃ עון כ׳ a transgression punishable with k., opp. איסור מיתה. Macc. III, 15 (23ᵃ) נפטרו מידי כְּרֵיתָן Ms. M. (ed. ידי כְּרִיתָתָם) are released from k. (which would otherwise await them). Ib. 13ᵇ ולמה יצאת כ׳ באחותו why is the punishment of k. specifically mentioned with reference to incest with a sister (Lev. XX, 17, being included in Lev. XVIII, 29)?—Gen. R. s. 28 (ref. to כְּרֵתִים, Zeph. II, 5, v. Targ. a. l.) גוי שהוא ראוי כ׳ a nation deserving extermination; (Yalk. Zeph. 567 ראוי לִיכָּרֵת); a. v. fr.—Pl. כְּרִיתוֹת (fr. כְּרִיתָה). Ker. I, 1 שלשים ושש כ׳ בתורה there are thirty six transgressions mentioned in the Torah as (eventually) punishable with kareth. Macc. III, 15, a. fr. חייבי כ׳ those on whose transgressions the penalty of k. is pronounced; a. fr.—K’rithoth, a treatise of the Mishnah, Tosefta, and Talmud Babli, of the Order of Kodashim.