One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
הִלְכוֹת רוֹצֵחַ וּשְׁמִירַת נֶפֶשׁ
Murderer and the Preservation of Life 5-7
Sefer Nezikin · Who is exiled • Three kinds of accident • Life in the city of refuge
3
Kinds of unintentional
killer, one is exiled
3
Days of silence that
mark a man an enemy
2
Torah sages who escort
him to the city
4
Kinds of High Priest whose
death sets him free
Ch 5No Ransom, No Shortcut
- A mitzvah to exile. One who kills unintentionally is exiled to a city of refuge, and the court is warned not to accept a ransom so he can stay home. (5:1)
- Only an immediate death. If the victim lingered, even with windpipe and esophagus cut, there is no exile, since he may have hastened his own death or wind may have entered the wound. (5:2)
- Who goes, who does not. A Jew who kills a servant or resident alien is exiled; a resident alien who kills a Jew is executed. A father teaching his son Torah or a needed trade, a teacher striking a student, and a court messenger are not exiled: they killed while doing a mitzvah. (5:3-6)
- The road and the boundary. Every killer flees first and is brought back for trial; the exile travels with two sages. Outside the Sabbath limits of his city the blood redeemer is not liable for killing him; inside them he is executed. (5:7-11)
- The altar. Only its top shelters, and only a priest mid-service. One fleeing a royal or emergency execution is saved there, unless he was sentenced through witnesses and warning. (5:12-14)
RememberMoney settles what you took. It cannot settle what happened to you.
Ch 6Which Way the Iron Was Falling
- Three accidents. Never anticipated: exiled. Close to forces beyond control: not exiled, and the blood redeemer who kills him is executed. Close to negligence: not exiled because exile cannot atone, and the redeemer who kills him is not liable. (6:1-5)
- Close to deliberate. Throwing a stone or toppling a wall into a public place, an enemy who had not spoken to the victim for three days, an open knife at an intersection, one who thought killing was permitted, one who aimed at someone else. (6:6-11)
- Only where he may be. One who entered a courtyard or a carpenter's shop without permission and was killed there brings no exile, since the verse speaks of a forest, a place one has the right to enter. (6:12)
- Descending means exile. Lowering a barrel, coming down a ladder, or bringing a cleaver forward: exiled. Raising, climbing up, a descent for the sake of ascent, or a rung that gave way: not exiled. (6:12-15)
- Beyond his control. A throw that veered, a stone in his lap he never knew of, a blind man's killing, and an axe head that flew from the tree rather than the handle bring no exile. (6:15-16)
RememberYou answer for what moves in the direction your force already sent it.
Ch 7Bring His Teacher
- And he shall live. A student's teacher is exiled with him and a teacher's academy with him, since all he needs to live must be provided. A husband supports his exiled wife. (7:1-2)
- The city itself. One who dies before exile is buried there; one who kills again inside it moves to another neighborhood. A city whose majority are killers, or with no elders, gives no refuge. (7:3-6)
- I am a killer. When honored he must say so, and may accept if they insist. He never leaves, not for a mitzvah, testimony or to save a life, even if he is Yoav ben Tzeruyah. (7:7-8)
- Going home. He returns at the death of an anointed High Priest, one inducted by the vestments, or one removed, not the priest anointed for war. Sentenced with no High Priest in office, he never returns. (7:9-12)
- Atoned, still humble. Back home he is an ordinary citizen whose killer is executed, but he never regains a position of authority. Unintentionally injuring a parent brings no exile. (7:13-15)
RememberA refuge that keeps the body alive and lets the soul starve is not a refuge.