פרשת מסעי תשי"א - ערי מקלט

or in enmity smote him with his hand, that he died; he that smote him shall surely be put to death: he is a murderer; the avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death when he meeteth him.

then the elders of his city shall send and fetch him thence, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.

The avenger of blood shall himself put the murderer to death; when he meeteth him, he shall put him to death.

and the avenger of blood find him without the border of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood slay the manslayer; there shall be no bloodguiltiness for him;

אין לו דם [AND THE AVENGER OF BLOOD MAY SLAY THE MURDERER] THERE IS NO BLOOD GUILT FOR HIM (more lit., he has no blood) — He is as one who has killed a dead man, who is one who has no blood (cf. Rashi on Exodus 22:1).

מגאל — [AND THE CITIES SHALL BE UNTO YOU AS A REFUGE] מגאל — i.e. as a refuge on account of the avenger of blood, — he who is the near relative of the murdered man.

ואם בכלי ברזל הכהו BUT IF HE SMOTE HIM WITH AN INSTRUMENT OF IRON — This is not speaking of one who kills inadvertently, who is mentioned near this (in the preceding verse), but of one who kills intentionally; and its purpose is to teach us that with whatever instrument one kills, it is necessary that it must have a size sufficient to cause death, because in the case of all of them (vv. 17, 18) it is said, אשר ימות “[an instrument] by which one may die”, the Hebrew of which we translate in the Targum by, “[an instrument] which is of such a size that one may die through it” — in the case of all, except in that of iron, because it is manifest and known to the Holy One, blessed be He, that iron kills whatever size it may be (however small it is), even a needle. Therefore the Torah does not assign a size to it by writing ,אשר ימות בה (Sifrei Bamidbar 160:3; Sanhedrin 76b). And if you say that Scripture is speaking of one who kills inadvertently, — but surely it says lower down, (v. 23) “Or with any stone, even though one may die by it, (even though it is large enough to kill him) seeing him not”, which certainly is by inadvertence. This proves as regards the cases mentioned before it, that Scripture is speaking of one who kills intentionally.