Makkot 23B

״אשר יעשה אתם האדם וחי בהם״. הא היושב ולא עבר עבירה נותנין לו שכר כעושה מצוה.

“That a person should perform and live by them” (Leviticus 18:5). It is inferred that with regard to one who sits and did not perform a transgression, God gives him a reward like that received by one who performs a mitzva.

רבי שמעון בר רבי אומר: הרי הוא אומר ״רק חזק לבלתי אכל (את) הדם כי הדם הוא הנפש וגו׳״ ומה אם הדם, שנפשו של האדם קצה ממנו ⁠– הפורש ממנו מקבל שכר, גזל ועריות, שנפשו של אדם מתאוה להן ומחמדתן ⁠– הפורש מהן על אחת כמה וכמה שיזכה לו ולדורותיו ולדורות דורותיו עד סוף כל הדורות.

R' Shimon bar R' Yehuda HaNasi says that as the verse states: “Only be steadfast to not eat the blood, as the blood is the soul” (Deuteronomy 12:23), it can be derived a fortiori: And if with regard to the blood, which a person’s soul loathes, one who abstains from its consumption receives a reward for that action, as it is written in a subsequent verse: “You should not eat it, so that it should be good for you and for your children after you” (Deuteronomy 12:25); then concerning robbery and sex with forbidden relatives, which a person’s soul desires and covets, one who abstains from their performance and overcomes his inclination, all the more so that he and his descendants and the descendants of his descendants until the end of all generations will merit a reward.

רבי חנניא בן עקשיא אומר: רצה הקדוש ברוך הוא לזכות את ישראל, לפיכך הרבה להם תורה ומצות, שנאמר ״ה׳ חפץ למען צדקו יגדיל תורה ויאדיר״.

R' Ḥananya ben Akashya says: God sought to confer merit upon the Jewish people; therefore, He increased for them Torah and mitzvot, as each mitzva increases merit, as it is stated: “It pleased YHWH for the sake of His righteousness to make the Torah great and glorious” (Isaiah 42:21). God sought to make the Torah great and glorious by means of the proliferation of mitzvot.

גמ׳ אמר רבי יוחנן: חלוקין עליו חבריו על רבי חנניה בן גמליאל. אמר רב אדא בר אהבה: אמרי בי רב, תנינן: אין בין שבת ליום הכפורים אלא שזה זדונו בידי אדם וזה זדונו בהכרת. ואם איתא, אידי ואידי בידי אדם הוא.

Talmud: R' Yoḥanan says: R' Ḥananya ben Gamliel’s colleagues are in disagreement with him and hold that lashes do not exempt the sinner from karet. Rav Adda bar Ahava said that this is so, as they say in the school of Rav that we learned in a Mishnah (Megilla 7b): The difference between Shabbat and Yom Kippur with regard to the labor prohibited on those days is only that in this case, Shabbat, its intentional desecration is punishable by human hands, as he is stoned by a court based on the testimony of witnesses who forewarned the transgressor, and in that case, Yom Kippur, its intentional desecration is punishable at the hand of God, with karet. And if the statement of R' Ḥananya ben Gamliel is so, in both this case, Shabbat, and that case, Yom Kippur, the punishment would be by human hands. Apparently, the tanna of the Mishnah, the Rabbis, disagrees with R' Ḥananya ben Gamliel.