Matot-Masei: Cities of Refuge

The LORD spoke further to Moses: Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, you shall provide yourselves with places to serve you as cities of refuge to which a manslayer who has killed a person unintentionally may flee. The cities shall serve you as a refuge from the avenger, so that the manslayer may not die unless he has stood trial before the assembly. The towns that you thus assign shall be six cities of refuge in all. Three cities shall be designated beyond the Jordan, and the other three shall be designated in the land of Canaan: they shall serve as cities of refuge. These six cities shall serve the Israelites and the resident aliens among them for refuge, so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there.

Anyone, however, who strikes another with an iron object so that death results is a murderer; the murderer must be put to death. If he struck him with a stone tool that could cause death, and death resulted, he is a murderer; the murderer must be put to death. Similarly, if the object with which he struck him was a wooden tool that could cause death, and death resulted, he is a murderer; the murderer must be put to death. The blood-avenger himself shall put the murderer to death; it is he who shall put him to death upon encounter. So, too, if he pushed him in hate or hurled something at him on purpose and death resulted, or if he struck him with his hand in enmity and death resulted, the assailant shall be put to death; he is a murderer. The blood-avenger shall put the murderer to death upon encounter.

If a man willfully struck a person with a stone or a piece of wood and killed him, we should appraise the object with which he knocked him down and the place on which he dealt the blow, to determine whether that object was or was not capable of killing by striking that vital organ... The Torah has stated no minimal size for an instrument of iron, as it is written: "If he struck the person with an iron tool, so that he died, the man is a murderer" (Numbers 35:16), even if he used a needle.— — If a man knocked a person down and killed him without a tool, if he struck him with his hand or foot, or bumped his head against him and killed him, we should appraise the strength of the assailant as well as the strength of the slain man, and the place of the blow. There is no comparison between pushing a person with a finger and kicking him with full might, between striking him in the heart and hitting him on the hip, between a weak person striking a robust and strong individual and a strong and healthy man striking a weak and sickly person.

In such cases the assembly shall decide between the slayer and the blood-avenger. The assembly shall protect the manslayer from the blood-avenger, and the assembly shall restore him to the city of refuge to which he fled, and there he shall remain until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the sacred oil. But if the manslayer ever goes outside the limits of the city of refuge to which he has fled, and the blood-avenger comes upon him outside the limits of his city of refuge, and the blood-avenger kills the manslayer, there is no bloodguilt on his account. For he must remain inside his city of refuge until the death of the high priest; after the death of the high priest, the manslayer may return to his land holding. Such shall be your law of procedure throughout the ages in all your settlements. If anyone kills a person, the manslayer may be executed only on the evidence of witnesses; the testimony of a single witness against a person shall not suffice for a sentence of death. You may not accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of a capital crime; he must be put to death. Nor may you accept ransom in lieu of flight to a city of refuge, enabling one to return to live on his land before the death of the priest. You shall not pollute the land in which you live; for blood pollutes the land, and the land can have no expiation for blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it. You shall not defile the land in which you live, in which I Myself abide, for I the LORD abide among the Israelite people.

(Bamidbar 35:25) "And the congregation shall return him": From here you learn that those who kill, either unwittingly or wittingly, repair to the cities of refuge, and beth-din send and bring them from there. One who is found liable for the death penalty is killed. One who is not found liable is let go. One who is found liable for exile is returned to his place, as it is written "and the congregation shall return him to his city of refuge." "and he shall dwell there until the death of the high-priest":

R. Meir says: A murderer shortens a man's days, and the high-priest lengthens a man's days. It is not fitting that the "shortener" should stand before the "lengthener." Rebbi says: A murderer defiles the land and removes the Shechinah, and the high-priest causes the Shechinah to repose on the land. It is not fitting that he who defiles the land should stand before him who causes the Shechinah to repose upon the land.

"In early times, before peoples were organized under a king, ministers, judges and officers, every family took revenge against other families, and the closest relative of the dead was responsible to avenge his death. The Torah established judges and officers and transferred the responsibilities of avenging [a killing] from individuals to the community. Now in a case of murder it was possible to mollify the avenger by telling him to leave it to the judges to investigate and execute the killer if found guilty of murder. However, when the killing was unintentional, it was impossible to mollify the avenger and oblige him to watch he who killed his father or brother remain unpunished. He and his acquaintances would interpret this [his inaction] to be proof that he does not love his father or brother, since he does not avenge their death. Now it was impossible to totally uproot this attitude [that lack of vengeance implied lack of love]. The divine wisdom knew that condemning the avenger to death when avenging an unintentional killing would not prevent all or even most of the avengers from avenging the death of their relatives...Therefore, what did the Torah do? It left the avenger the right to avenge the killing of his kin but designated places of refuge where the [unintentional] killer could seek protection and in which the avenger is unable to kill him"