The City That Lets You Live

About This Talk

Chapter 5 establishes the positive commandment to exile one who kills unintentionally to a city of refuge and forbids the court to accept a ransom in its place; exile applies only when the victim died at once, so a victim who lingered, even with his windpipe and esophagus cut, brings no exile, since he may have hastened his own death or wind may have entered the wound; a Jew who unintentionally kills a servant or resident alien is exiled, a resident alien who unintentionally kills a Jew is executed, and a father who strikes his son while teaching him Torah or a needed trade, a teacher who strikes a student, and a court messenger who strikes a litigant are not exiled, since they killed while performing a mitzvah; intentional and unintentional killers both flee first to a city of refuge and are brought back for trial, the exile is escorted by two Torah sages, the blood redeemer is not liable for killing him outside the Sabbath limits of the city, and the top of the altar protects only a priest in the midst of his service, though anyone fleeing a royal or emergency execution who grasps the altar is saved unless he was sentenced through witnesses and warning. Chapter 6 divides unintentional killers into three: one who never anticipated the result is exiled, one whose act resembles forces beyond his control is not exiled and is protected from the blood redeemer, and one whose act resembles negligence is not exiled because exile cannot atone for him, and the blood redeemer who kills him is not liable; throwing a stone or tearing down a wall into a public place, killing while holding an open knife at an intersection, an enemy who had not spoken to the victim for three days, one who thought killing was permitted, and one who intended another victim are all close to deliberate; one who kills a person who entered his courtyard or workshop without permission is not exiled; whenever the deadly object is descending, as when lowering a barrel, climbing down a ladder or bringing a butcher's cleaver forward, the killer is exiled, while ascent, a descent for the sake of ascent, a stone he never knew was in his lap, an axe head flying off the tree rather than the handle, and a blind man's killing are close to forces beyond his control. Chapter 7 provides that a student's teacher is exiled with him and a teacher's academy with him, since the verse and he shall live requires that all he needs to live be provided; a husband supports his exiled wife, a killer who dies before exile is buried in the city of refuge, a killer who kills again inside it moves to another neighborhood, and a city whose majority are killers or which has no elders gives no refuge; when honored he must say I am a killer, and may accept if they insist; he may never leave, not for a mitzvah, testimony or to save a life, even if he is Yoav ben Tzeruyah; he returns at the death of an anointed High Priest, one inducted by the vestments, or one removed from office, but not at the death of the priest anointed for war; one sentenced when there was no High Priest never returns; on returning he is an ordinary citizen whose killer is executed, yet he never regains a position of authority he once held; and one who unintentionally injures a parent is not exiled.