Sixth Commandment: Do Not Murder

You shall not murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

(Early halachic midrash on Exodus - rabbinic period)

How were the Ten Commandments given? Five on one tablet and five on the other. "I am the Lord your God," and opposite it "Do not murder:" the text is telling us that one who spills blood, it is as if he diminished the likeness of the King. Compare this to a human king who, entering a country, sets up statues, makes images, and mints coins, all in his likeness. After some time, they pull down his statues, break his images, melt down his coins, all to diminish the likeness of the king. Thus everyone who spills blood is considered by the Torah to have diminished the King's likeness, as it says (Gen 9:6) "Whoever sheds human blood, by humans will their blood be shed -- for in God's image God man human beings."

(Moshe Alshich, bTurkey 1508- d. Tsefat 1593)

Do not murder. This commandment is aligned with the creation utterance, (Gen 1:14) "Let there be lights in the curtain of the sky to light up the land..." And that is because anyone who kills a human soul is extinguishing a the light of a candle, for (Prov. 20:27) "God's candle is the human soul." And in this connection the sages said (Tractate Shabbat 30b) that the commandment of Shabbat candlighting fallss on women, who extinguished the light of the world when they became the cause of the arrival of death. And the human soul is also from 'the curtain of the sky to light up the land,' and to maintain their ability to light the world through God's worship is the root of the commandment 'Do not murder," as we said.

(1) To not kill the innocent: To not kill a soul, as it is stated (Exodus 20:13), "You shall not kill."

(2) The root of this commandment is well-known and revealed to all that see the sun. For God, may He be blessed, created the world and commanded us be fruitful and multiply, so that we may settle it before Him, and prevented us, lest we destroy it with our hands, from killing and destroying the creatures that are the settlers of the world. However, the total evildoers - for example, the heretics and the talebearers - are not considered settlers of the world. About them, the verse states (Proverbs 11:10), "in the destruction of evil ones, rejoicing," because they will not settle the world, but rather ruin it with all their might. This is what one of our Sages, may their memory be blessed, said about the destruction of evil ones (Bava Metzia 83b), "I am getting rid of the thorns from the vineyard" - that is, when those are destroyed the world will be better settled, just as the vineyard's fruit increases and improves when the thorns are weeded out of it.

(3) Some of the laws of this commandment: as our sages said (Sanhedrin 88a), it is the same whether one kills a healthy person or a sick person close to death, even someone dying of an illness that is itself a punishment from heaven; killing him is still a capital crime. - and even if he is dying from a sickness by the hand of the Heavens - he is [still] killed for it....

(4) And the rule in every case, everywhere adn at all times, regardless of gender, is that one who violates this law and murders intentionally after having been warned by witnesses, is executed by the sword. (But the law in accidental cases is separately described in Parshat Masei, Mitzvah # 409.)

(Maimonides. Spain 1038- Egypt 1204)

(1) Anyone who kills a human being violates this negative commandment "Do not murder" (Ex 20:13). If he murdered intentionally and before witnesses, he is executed by the sword, regardless of the manner of the murder.

(2) It is a commandment for the redeemer of blood [to kill the murderer] as it says, "The redeemer of blood shall execute the murderer (Numbers 35:19)." And every possible inheritor may be a redeemer of blood; but if he refuses, or he is unable to execute him, or if there is no redeemer of blood, then the court executes him.

...(4) And the court is warned not to take a ransom from the murderer, even if the murderer gives all of the money in the world, and even if the redeemer of blood wishes to let the murderer go. For the murder victims life did not belong to the redeemer of blood, but to the Holy One Blessed be He, as it says, "Do not take a ransom for the life of a murderer." (Num 35:31). And the Torah is more insistent about bloodshed than anything else, saying, "You shall not pollute the land..."(BeMidbar 35:33) and "...for blood pollutes the land..."

(5) The intentional murder is not executed by the witnesses nor by anyone who sees him until he has come before the court and been sentenced to execution, as it says, (Num35:12), "The murderer is not to be executed until he has stood before the assembly for justice." And that is the law for anyone liable for execution, whatever they have done, that they are not to be executed until the conclusion of their legal process before the court.

(6) What case are we talking about? One who violated the law and did the crime for while he is liable to judicial execution. But one who is pursuing another to kill him, even if the pursuer is a child -- every single Jew is commanded to save the prey from the pursuer, even by killing the pursuer if necessary.

(7) How so? .... If they could save him by injuring the pursuer, such as hitting him with an arrow or a stone or a sword that cuts off his hand, or breaks his foot, or blinds him, they do it. But if they cannot aim and so save him other than by killing the pursuer, they absolutely kill him, even though he has not yet murdered, as it says, (Deut 25:12) "Cut off her hand, do not let your eye pity.."

(8) By which we mean: whatever part of the body he was going to hurt if it could cause mortal injury, whether the attacker is a man or a woman, the verse's point is that anyone intending to strike another person with a blow that might kill, we save the victim at the cost of the pursuer's limb, and if we can't help killing the pursuer we still do it, as it says, "do not let your eye pity."

(9) It is a negative commandment that one should not protect the life of a rodef (pursuer). For this reason, the sages ruled that in the case of a pregnant woman in a dangerous labor, it is permissible to dismember the fetus in her womb - whether with a drug or by hand because it is like a rodef pursuing her to kill her. However, once his head has emerged one may not touch him, as we do not set aside one nefesh [soul] for another, and this is the natural way of the world.

(10) One who pursues another man to kill him is just like one who pursues a betrothed girl to rape her, as it says, (Deut 22:26) "For like one who rose against his neighbor to murder him, this case is the same." And it geos on to say, "The betrothed girl screamed but nobody saved her." So we know that if there is someone who can save her, they must save her, even at the cost of the attacker's life.

(11) And this is the rule for other sexual violations too... But one who is chasing an animal to have sex with it, or one who runs to do forbidden work on shabbat, or who runs to worship idols, even though it is surely true that these are central religious prohibitions, they are not to be executed unless and until they have actually committed those violations, and been brought before the court, and sentenced duly to execution....

(13) Anyone who can rescue a victim by injuring the attacker but doesn't bother to do so and instead saves the victim by killing the attacker, that is murder, and is in turn liable for execution! -- but the court does not actually execute that one.

(14) Anyone who can save and does not save transgresses 'do not stand by the blood of your neighbour' (Lev 19:16). So too one who sees his friend drowning in the sea, or bandits attacking him or a bad animal attacking him and he is able himself to save him or he could hire others to save him but he does not; or one who hears idol worshippers or informers plotting harm for him or laying a trap for him and he doesn't warn his friend; or if he knows that an idol worshipper or a thug are on their way to his friend and he could appease them on behalf of his friend to change their intention and he doesn't appease him; and so too any similar case; One who does any of these transgresses 'do not stand idly by your neighbour's blood'.

(Spain 1089-1167)

You shall not kill: with your hand; or with your tongue to testify falsely to have him killed; or in your being a talebearer; or to purposely give bad counsel that you know will result in his being killed; or when a secret is revealed to you with which you can save him from death if you reveal it to him: if you don't reveal it, you are like a murderer.

...And in the Commandment "Do Not Murder" are also certainly included other mitzvot...[lots of cases quoted here]...And according to these citations, it is appropriate to understand "Do Not Murder" as applying to cases of one who kills one of his brothers and to one who strikes a blow that injures another; and one who goes carrying evil tales is also included in this Commandment, because it encompasses murder, too. And also in this Commandment, to not prevent justice from the poor, and 'that your brother may live among you,' (Lev 25:36), and "And your eye will look harshly on your impoverished brother and you will not give, and he will call out to God and you will bear sin." (Deut 16:9). For one who prevents tzedakah is a killer of poor people. And similar the manumission of Jewish men and women slaves in the sabbatical year is including in this prohibition, for one who holds them longer than is just, it's as though he kills them and eliminates them from the world. And more: included in this Commandment, according to the Sages, is one who shames his friend about any defect in him or in his ancestors, or one who interferes with the work of his fellow and prevents his livelihood, or 'moves his boundary stone.' ...