One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
הִלְכוֹת רוֹצֵחַ וּשְׁמִירַת נֶפֶשׁ
Murderer and the Preservation of Life 2-4
Sefer Nezikin · Who the court may execute • What could cause death • One man entirely accountable
30
Days before a premature
infant counts as viable
10
Handbreadths: a fall from
lower is not deemed lethal
4
Cubits from the wall that
exempt a rebounding ball
1
Man who must be entirely
accountable for a death
Ch 2With His Own Hand
- The court executes only the hand. One who kills with his own hands, by sword, a stone that can kill, strangling or fire, is executed by the court. One who hires a killer, sends his servants, binds a man before a lion, or takes his own life is a shedder of blood liable at the hands of Heaven, not the court, from the threefold I will demand an account of Genesis 9. (2:1-3)
- Not a loophole. A king may execute such killers by royal authority to perfect society, and a court may do so as an emergency measure. Otherwise the court has him beaten with severe blows and imprisoned, so that others will not arrange killings expecting no consequences. (2:4-5)
- No life is ranked. Killing an adult or a one-day-old infant, male or female, healthy, dying or in death throes, is murder. Exceptions: a premature infant within thirty days, one in death throes from wounds others inflicted, and one certainly a trefah whose physicians say his condition has no remedy. Every person is presumed sound. (2:6-8)
- The trefah who kills. He is executed only if he killed in the presence of the court. On witnesses alone he is not, since false witnesses against a trefah could not receive the death they plotted, and testimony immune to hazamah is invalid in capital cases. (2:9)
- The servant. The killer of a Canaanite servant is executed like the killer of a free Jew. The owner's leniency when the servant survives a full 24 hours applies only to a rod or strap, never a lethal weapon, and not to a servant half free, held by partners, or in a seller's 30-day stipulation. (2:10-14)
RememberWhere God says I will demand, the case is not dismissed. It is transferred.
Ch 3That Could Cause Death
- Everything is assessed. The object, where it struck, the force and distance of the throw, and the size, strength and health of attacker and victim. A blow to the heart is not a blow to the thigh; a stone from ten cubits is not one from two or from a hundred. (3:1-3)
- Iron with a point needs no size. A needle, spit or knife of any size suffices. A blunt hunk of metal is assessed like wood or stone. A fall is measured by its height and the victim, and in the Rambam's own view ten handbreadths is not high enough to kill. (3:4-6)
- Executed as if by strangling. Holding a man in water or fire until he cannot rise, smothering him, sealing him from air, filling his room with smoke, or burning a candle in an airtight chamber. Pushing into water or fire is assessed by whether he could have climbed out. (3:9-10)
- Murderer, but not before this court. Binding him to starve, leaving him where cold or heat will later come, covering him with a barrel, removing his roof, or setting a snake on him. If one pushed him into a pit and he or another took away the ladder, neither is executed. (3:10-12)
- Rebounds and bursts. A stone rebounding from a wall: liable. A ball thrown after a warning: exempt if the victim was within four cubits of the wall, liable beyond, even at 100 cubits, if heavy enough to kill. Turning water on a bound man: liable only if the first burst killed. (3:13)
RememberIs the death already in your hands, or still waiting for something else to arrive? That is the line between the two lists.
Ch 4One Man, Entirely
- Intent, instrument and target must meet. Intending one man and killing another, throwing into a crowd, or striking where the blow could not have killed as aimed: no execution, and no exile, since one who kills intentionally is never exiled. (4:1-2)
- The first assessment governs. Assessed to live: the attacker pays the five damages and is released, even if the victim later dies. Assessed to die: he is imprisoned; full recovery, walking on his own strength, frees him on payment; improvement then death means execution with no second assessment. (4:3-5)
- Ten sticks, no execution. Ten who strike with ten sticks, at once or in turn, are all exempt, as are two who hold a man in water, since one person must be entirely accountable. But if ten threw stones too small to kill and an eleventh threw a lethal one, he is executed. (4:6-7)
- The kipah. Killers who cannot be convicted for lack of joint witnesses, a warning, or consistent detail are confined and fed sparingly until they die, a measure used for no other crime, because murder endangers society more than idolatry or Shabbat violation. (4:8-9)
- Ach'av and Navot. Every sin of the idolatrous king was answered by a merit except the blood of Navot, whom he never killed by hand. The chapter ends on minim and apikorsim, and on the duty to save a Jew who sins only occasionally for his own pleasure. (4:9-12)
RememberThe court will not divide a death into shares. It finds it whole, in one man, or not at all.