In the last Mishnah, we spoke about what happens if a Kohen Gadol (High Priest) was appointed right before a person’s sentencing: the person would have to wait for the new Kohen Gadol to die in order to go free. Here we’ll talk about what happens if there actually was no Kohen Gadol in that position when the person was sentenced.
The Mishnah says that if the killer was sentenced when there was no Kohen Gadol—because the previous Kohen Gadol died before the sentencing and a new Kohen Gadol had not yet been appointed, because the Kohen Gadol was killed and no new Kohen Gadol had been appointed to replace him, or because the Kohen Gadol killed somebody and was removed from his position, with a new Kohen Gadol not appointed until after the killer was sentenced—then there was no Kohen Gadol at the time of sentencing. In all of these cases, the killer is never allowed to leave the Ir Miklat (city of refuge). Only the death of a Kohen Gadol who was in that position at the time the killer was sentenced frees the killer to leave the Ir Miklat. Since there was no Kohen Gadol at that time, there is no way for the killer to go free.
The killer is never allowed to leave the Ir Miklat for any reason. He is not allowed to leave to give testimony about a mitzvah (commandment). For example, let’s say he sees the new moon and wants to declare Rosh Chodesh (new moon). He is not allowed to testify about a monetary case or a capital case. Even though usually, if somebody knows about a capital crime, they have to report it, here he can’t leave. Even if the Jewish people are in a struggle, he can’t leave. The Jewish people need him. Even if he was the general of the Jewish people and they needed him to go to war, he was irreplaceable. They need him to lead the Jewish army, like Yoav ben Tzeruya, who was David HaMelech’s general. He is never allowed to leave the Ir Miklat, no matter what.
As the Pasuk (verse) tells us, he flees there to the Ir Miklat. The word shamah there tells us that place in the Ir Miklat is going to be his permanent dwelling place. He has to stay in that town. He is never allowed to leave. We have the word shamah two other times in reference to the Ir Miklat, and we learn two other laws from it. “In the Ir Miklat he should die.” In other words, even if he is very sick and about to die, he is never allowed to leave the Ir Miklat. He has to stay there and die there. Also, that should be the spot where he is buried. Even after he dies, they are not allowed to remove his body for burial outside of the Ir Miklat.
Another law about the Ir Miklat: just as the actual city, the town of the Ir Miklat, protects the killer from the Goel Hadam (blood avenger), the techum—the area of a 2,000 amot (cubits) radius around the city—also protects the killer. The Goel Hadam is not allowed to kill him within that 2,000-amot radius. If the killer went outside the 2,000-techum radius of the Ir Miklat and the Goel Hadam found him and wanted to kill him, Rabbi Yosef says that it is a mitzvah for the Goel Hadam to kill him, to avenge his relative’s death. In addition, any other person is allowed to kill him, but there is no mitzvah for them to do so. Rabbi Akiva says that the Goel Hadam is permitted to do it, but there is no mitzvah for him to do it. Everybody else is not allowed to do it; they are forbidden to kill this person. But if they do, we say they do not get the death penalty for his murder.
The Mishnah now talks about whether a killer is safe when he is in a tree that is partially in the Ir Miklat and partially outside it. Let’s say you have a tree that is within the techum of the Ir Miklat, but its branches extend outside the techum, outside the 2,000-amot radius. Or the tree is outside the techum, and the branches extend into the techum. We say the halakha (Jewish law) is as follows: if the tree is within the techum, that is considered the main part, the ikar (main part) of the tree. Therefore, the branches that go outside the techum are actually considered part of that trunk, and the entire tree is considered to be part of the Ir Miklat. In addition to that, Hakol holech achar hanof, everything goes after the location of the branches. So, if the branches are inside the techum, even though the rest of the tree is outside the techum, the entire tree is considered to be within the techum. In other words, for all intents and purposes, the killer would be safe as long as he is on any part of the tree, because the branches’ position within the techum is relevant. The regular part of the tree, the main part of the tree, is also considered to be within the techum if that part is in the techum, and the whole tree is as well. So, if he is touching any part of the tree, he is basically safe.
Let’s say he was already sent to the Ir Miklat for a murder, and then he killed another person by mistake in that city. He is exiled from his current neighborhood in that city to another neighborhood in the city. Technically, you would think that he has to go to a new Ir Miklat; he has to go into exile again. But we say he does not go to a new Ir Miklat because he has to stay in that Ir Miklat because of the original murder that he committed. So, what we do is have him go from one neighborhood to the next, because he still has to go into exile for that second killing. If he stays in his current neighborhood, then the Goel Hadam would actually have the right to kill him in that neighborhood, even though he is within the Ir Miklat.
But if you are a Levi (Levite), and you were living in that city, in the Ir Miklat, not because you killed somebody but because it is the Levi’s hometown, and then the Levi kills somebody in that hometown, he is allowed to go from the Ir Miklat where he lives to a new Ir Miklat because he was never exiled to that city. He was not in that Ir Miklat for a reason; he was only there because he was a Levi. So he is not stuck there. Therefore, he would go, and he is allowed to leave for another Ir Miklat. Or, if he wanted to, he would technically be allowed to stay in that city and consider it to be his Ir Miklat.