Then he could only be freed from the Ir Miklat (city of refuge) when the new Kohen Gadol (High Priest) died. He is not freed with the death of the first Kohen Gadol. Here, the Mishnah is going to discuss what would happen in any situation where somebody was killed. What do they do right away to make sure things go correctly? The Mishnah says that originally, right after a killing, whether it happened intentionally or unintentionally, they would rush the killer to the Ir Miklat. The Goel Hadam (avenger of blood), even though he is not allowed to kill the person if it was Shogeg, if it was a mistake, before the trial takes place and the judges declare the killing to be Shogeg, might still kill him. If he did, he would be Patur (exempt). So we are still nervous that the Goel Hadam, the avenger of blood, is going to kill the murderer, and we rush him to the Ir Miklat to protect him.
The court then eventually brings the killer for trial. If the court eventually sentences him to death, determining that he killed on purpose, they execute him, provided there are two witnesses and the entire matter happened according to din (law), and they determine that he did it on purpose. But if they find that he is not liable to be put to death—for example, if they say the killing was totally unexpected—then they acquit him. If they acquit him in this case, the Goel Hadam is not allowed to kill him either, because it was not a Shogeg; it was a totally unexpected circumstance.
Now we will get to when somebody goes to the Ir Miklat. If the court determines that he has to go into exile, that the killing was by Shogeg, was by mistake, then they return him to the place—to the Ir Miklat he came from—as the Pasuk (verse) tells us. The Pasuk says that the HaEdah, which is really the courts, return the killer to the Ir Miklat. That is what we said in the previous Mishnah: they appoint two Talmidei Chachamim (students of sages) to accompany him and convince the Goel Hadam not to kill him. As we said, the killer has to stay in the Ir Miklat to avoid being killed by the Goel Hadam until the Kohen Gadol dies.
The Mishnah will now elaborate on what type of Kohen Gadol has to die in order to allow the killer to go free and prevent the Goel Hadam from being allowed to kill him. The Mishnah says that this could be a Kohen Gadol who had the special anointing oil poured on him, or simply a Kohen Gadol who became Kohen Gadol by putting on the eight special garments, rather than the four garments worn by the regular Kohanim (priests). What are we saying here? Originally, a Kohen Gadol would become Kohen Gadol by having the special Shemen HaMishchah (special anointing oil) poured on him. Moshe Rabbeinu was the one who prepared the special oil, but at the end of the Bayit Rishon, the end of the first Beit HaMikdash, the oil was hidden away to prevent one of the enemies of the Jewish people from capturing it. From that point on, a Kohen became Kohen Gadol by wearing the special clothes of the Kohen Gadol without the Shemen HaMishchah. So we are talking about either type of Kohen Gadol.
In addition to them, this could even be a Kohen Gadol who stepped down from his position. In other words, the regular Kohen Gadol would serve on Yom Kippur, but if he became Baal Keri, he had an emission, and became Tameh (ritually impure) on Yom Kippur, they had a deputy in place to take his spot, because only the Kohen Gadol could bring the Korbanot (offerings) on Yom Kippur, and he was Tameh. So they would have someone take his spot. After all that happened and the regular Kohen Gadol became pure once more, they would remove the substitute Kohen Gadol from his position, and he was no longer the Kohen Gadol. But for the rest of his life, because he had served temporarily as the Kohen Gadol, he was considered to be a Kohen Gadol. We are going to say that even if he dies while the regular Kohen Gadol is still serving, that would be enough to free the killer from the Ir Miklat. The death of any of these people would allow the killer to go free from the Ir Miklat, and the Goel Hadam would not have the ability to kill him either. Any one of the Kohanim Gedolim (High Priests)—whether he was anointed with Shemen HaMishchah to become the Kohen Gadol or simply wore more clothing to become Kohen Gadol, since they did not have Shemen HaMishchah for him—could qualify. Even if somebody was Kohen Gadol for a week, a very short time while the regular Kohen Gadol was becoming pure, his death would also allow the murderer to go free without having to worry about the Goel Hadam.
Another opinion: Rabbi Yehuda says that even the death of a Kohen who was anointed for war would allow the killer to return home. They would have a Kohen who would motivate and inspire the Jewish army before they went to battle. Even though he is not really the Kohen Gadol, he has some similarity to a Kohen Gadol; for example, he is not allowed to marry a widow. So we consider his death to be the death of a Kohen Gadol as well, and the killer could go free from the Ir Miklat.
The killer going free depends on the death of the Kohen Gadol. We are nervous that the killer is now going to pray for the death of that Kohen Gadol. So, in order to appease the murderer and prevent him from praying for the death of their sons, the mothers of the Kohanim Gedolim would supply food and clothing to the people stuck in the Ir Miklat, those killers. What is the connection between the Kohen Gadol dying and the killer going free? The Chachamim (sages) tell us that the Kohen Gadol should have been praying that no accidents happen to his people when he went into the Kodesh HaKodashim on Yom Kippur. If he prayed properly, then maybe a Shogeg killing would not have happened, and this man would not have had to go to the Ir Miklat. So we tie these two facts together. Even though Hashem is not going to listen to a prayer for somebody to die unless that person deserves it, maybe in this scenario there is concern that the murderer’s Tefillah (prayer) will be heard, because the Kohen Gadol is, in a way, responsible, even if only very slightly, because he did not pray hard enough. Therefore, we are nervous that the killer’s Tefillah will have an effect and Hashem will answer him.
Mi-she-nigmar dino, met Kohen Gadol: if the Kohen Gadol died after the killer was sentenced to be exiled to the Ir Miklat but before he actually arrived there, and the Kohen Gadol died right at that point, then the killer had not yet reached the Ir Miklat, but had already been sentenced to go. Harei zeh eino goleh: the killer does not have to go to the Ir Miklat. The fact that the Kohen Gadol died after the sentencing is enough to say that the killer now goes free, and the Goel Hadam is not allowed to attack him. Once the sentencing happened, it is considered as if the Galut (the exile) had happened, and the death of the Kohen Gadol then removes the requirement for him to go to the Ir Miklat. But if the Kohen Gadol died before judgment was finalized. But if the Kohen Gadol died after the killing but before the killer was sentenced to go into Galut, they appoint another Kohen Gadol in his place. If the killer is then sentenced to death after the new Kohen has already been appointed, even though the Kohen Gadol died after the killing, what matters is the sentencing. If the sentencing had not happened yet when the Kohen Gadol died, then that does not free him. He has to wait for the death of the new, second Kohen Gadol.