In this weeks Parsha Beni Yisroal are at Har Sinai and Moshe is telling them more laws that they need to follow. One law that Moshe says is "One who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death" Rashi asks what if he didn't strike a man what if he struck a woman or a child would he get killed? Rashi then quotes a different passuk to prove that even if he killed an woman or a child he would get killed. In Vayikra it says that if a man strikes "any human being he will be put to death" which includes woman and children. In Vayikra it does not mention that the person has to die. Therefor you might think that any blow can subject you to the death penalty. Therefor the passuk in Mishpatim comes to tell us in order to be liable for the death penalty the victim must die. Do you think it is fair to say that if you kill someone you should be killed or is it to harsh of a punishment? Why would the Torah not have one passuk for this law? Meaning why doesn't the Torah just combine the pissukim and say One who strikes any human being so that he dies should surely be put to death?
According to the Torah one can legally be killed if he/she killed a person. It depends if it was an accident or on purpose because if it was an accident than the person can go to an ere miklat instead of being executed. This is a fair punishment for killers. The Torah can't put it all into one Pasuk because there are a lot of rules about killing and what the killer must do after.
ReplyDeleteIf a person were to accidentally hit someone, he would not be put to death, but rather have to run to a city of refuge in order to be saved from the wrath of goel ha'dam. If the pesukim were combined then this would not be specified, along with other rules such as the possibility of the murderer being a katan, which would result in a different punishment as we learned in gemara. The rules are too complex to be combined into just one or two short pesukim.
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