This sheet on Deuteronomy 19 was written by Sarah Grabiner for 929 and can also be found here
How can one chapter contain such aggressive, xenophobic ideas (vv 1, 13, 21), so problematic to many modern ears, and, juxtaposed to these verses, the most radical, progressive version of restorative justice (vv 2-10)?
We first find the cities of refuge in Numbers 35, where creating havens for unintentional killers is a levitical duty. In Deuteronomy 4 and 19 (and Joshua 20), these places and details about whom should be sent there reappear. The cities are for those whose actions have led to a death, without the killing having been their intention. There are two purposes: the protection of the individual from vigilante vengeance killings, and their atonement and restoration to society.
Makkot 10a stresses the importance of providing compassionately for these people, with water, food, people, access to Torah study, and no weapons in the vicinity, all in the name of “ v’chai ,” that they should live well there. Additionally, Rambam (Hilchot Rotseach 5-6) illumines how the cities are for atonement, by clarifying that for some, exile to a city of refuge would not lead to their successful repentance. The cities of refuge are not a punishment. Rambam expounds at length about keeping these people safe; they are accompanied to the city by two torah scholars, and if they are murdered in revenge while there, the killer will be punished severely.
In short, the cities of refuge are a compassionate framework for restorative justice. Nancy Wiener and Jo Hirschmann in their book Maps and Meaning; Levitical Models for Contemporary Care write of how, “the message was clear: reintegration and repentance were the goals, not hardship and punishment” (p 214). I was struck by this charge for justice in reading of the teenager-turned-ISIS-wife-and-mother, Shamima Begum. Having fled to a Syrian refugee camp, Begum has been stripped of her British citizenship without trial. Surely she has made mistakes, but her intentions and actions must be studied carefully before such “hardship and punishment,” as Wiener and Hirschmann wrote, is prioritised over “reintegration and repentance.”
So how do we hold both aspects of Deuteronomy 19? The dispossession and killing of other nations so the Israelites can settle their land, and pitiless revenge; and the cities of refuge? We must reread the problematic bias towards non-Israelites. There is plenty of guidance in Torah to lead to a more “do not oppress the stranger for we were strangers” attitude. We must reject the violent, anti-Other framing, and translate the kernel of the wisdom of Torah for our time; embracing the model of cities of refuge, adapting the system not just for Jews, but for all those amongst whom we live, in modern, democratic, diverse societies.
We first find the cities of refuge in Numbers 35, where creating havens for unintentional killers is a levitical duty. In Deuteronomy 4 and 19 (and Joshua 20), these places and details about whom should be sent there reappear. The cities are for those whose actions have led to a death, without the killing having been their intention. There are two purposes: the protection of the individual from vigilante vengeance killings, and their atonement and restoration to society.
Makkot 10a stresses the importance of providing compassionately for these people, with water, food, people, access to Torah study, and no weapons in the vicinity, all in the name of “ v’chai ,” that they should live well there. Additionally, Rambam (Hilchot Rotseach 5-6) illumines how the cities are for atonement, by clarifying that for some, exile to a city of refuge would not lead to their successful repentance. The cities of refuge are not a punishment. Rambam expounds at length about keeping these people safe; they are accompanied to the city by two torah scholars, and if they are murdered in revenge while there, the killer will be punished severely.
In short, the cities of refuge are a compassionate framework for restorative justice. Nancy Wiener and Jo Hirschmann in their book Maps and Meaning; Levitical Models for Contemporary Care write of how, “the message was clear: reintegration and repentance were the goals, not hardship and punishment” (p 214). I was struck by this charge for justice in reading of the teenager-turned-ISIS-wife-and-mother, Shamima Begum. Having fled to a Syrian refugee camp, Begum has been stripped of her British citizenship without trial. Surely she has made mistakes, but her intentions and actions must be studied carefully before such “hardship and punishment,” as Wiener and Hirschmann wrote, is prioritised over “reintegration and repentance.”
So how do we hold both aspects of Deuteronomy 19? The dispossession and killing of other nations so the Israelites can settle their land, and pitiless revenge; and the cities of refuge? We must reread the problematic bias towards non-Israelites. There is plenty of guidance in Torah to lead to a more “do not oppress the stranger for we were strangers” attitude. We must reject the violent, anti-Other framing, and translate the kernel of the wisdom of Torah for our time; embracing the model of cities of refuge, adapting the system not just for Jews, but for all those amongst whom we live, in modern, democratic, diverse societies.
Sarah Grabiner is a fifth-year cantorial student at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion's Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music.
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