(12) He who fatally strikes a man shall be put to death. (13) If he did not do it by design, but it came about by an act of God, I will assign you a place to which he can flee.

(9) The LORD spoke further to Moses: (10) Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, (11) 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. (12) 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. (13) The towns that you thus assign shall be six cities of refuge in all. (14) 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. (15) 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. (16) Anyone, however, who strikes another with an iron object so that death results is a murderer; the murderer must be put to death. (17) 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. (18) 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. (19) The blood-avenger himself shall put the murderer to death; it is he who shall put him to death upon encounter. (20) So, too, if he pushed him in hate or hurled something at him on purpose and death resulted, (21) 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. (22) But if he pushed him without malice aforethought or hurled any object at him unintentionally, (23) or inadvertently dropped upon him any deadly object of stone, and death resulted—though he was not an enemy of his and did not seek his harm— (24) in such cases the assembly shall decide between the slayer and the blood-avenger. (25) 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. (26) But if the manslayer ever goes outside the limits of the city of refuge to which he has fled, (27) 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. (28) 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. (29) Such shall be your law of procedure throughout the ages in all your settlements. (30) 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. (31) 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. (32) 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. (33) 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. (34) You shall not defile the land in which you live, in which I Myself abide, for I the LORD abide among the Israelite people.

(41) Then Moses set aside three cities on the east side of the Jordan (42) to which a manslayer could escape, one who unwittingly slew a fellow man without having been hostile to him in the past; he could flee to one of these cities and live: (43) Bezer, in the wilderness in the Tableland, belonging to the Reubenites; Ramoth, in Gilead, belonging to the Gadites; and Golan, in Bashan, belonging to the Manassites.

(1) When the LORD your God has cut down the nations whose land the LORD your God is assigning to you, and you have dispossessed them and settled in their towns and homes, (2) you shall set aside three cities in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess. (3) You shall survey the distances, and divide into three parts the territory of the country that the LORD your God has allotted to you, so that any manslayer may have a place to flee to.— (4) Now this is the case of the manslayer who may flee there and live: one who has killed another unwittingly, without having been his enemy in the past. (5) For instance, a man goes with his neighbor into a grove to cut wood; as his hand swings the ax to cut down a tree, the ax-head flies off the handle and strikes the other so that he dies. That man shall flee to one of these cities and live.— (6) Otherwise, when the distance is great, the blood-avenger, pursuing the manslayer in hot anger, may overtake him and kill him; yet he did not incur the death penalty, since he had never been the other’s enemy. (7) That is why I command you: set aside three cities. (8) And when the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as He swore to your fathers, and gives you all the land that He promised to give your fathers— (9) if you faithfully observe all this Instruction that I enjoin upon you this day, to love the LORD your God and to walk in His ways at all times—then you shall add three more towns to those three. (10) Thus blood of the innocent will not be shed, bringing bloodguilt upon you in the land that the LORD your God is allotting to you. (11) If, however, a person who is the enemy of another lies in wait for him and sets upon him and strikes him a fatal blow and then flees to one of these towns, (12) the elders of his town shall have him brought back from there and shall hand him over to the blood-avenger to be put to death; (13) you must show him no pity. Thus you will purge Israel of the blood of the innocent, and it will go well with you.

The following go into banishment: one who kills in error. If [for instance] while he was pushing a roller [on the roof] and it fell down and killed somebody; If while he was lowering a cask it fell down and killed somebody; If while coming down a ladder he fell on somebody and killed him, he goes into banishment. But, if while he was pulling up the roller it fell back and killed somebody; If while he was raising a cask and the rope snapped and the cask fell and killed somebody; If while going up a ladder he fell down and killed somebody, he does not go into banishment. This is the general principle: [whenever the death was caused] in the course of a downward movement, he goes into banishment, but [if it was caused] not in the course of a downward movement, he does not go into banishment. If the iron slipped from its heft and killed [somebody]: Rabbi says, “He does not go into banishment.” And the Sages say: “He goes into banishment.” If it flew from the log being split: Rabbi says, “He goes into banishment.” And the Sages say: “He does not go into banishment.”

MISHNAH: One Was Roofing With a Roller - They used to plaster their roofs with clay. [The roofs] were flat but the clay would give them a slight incline so that the [rain] water would run off. They would plaster it with a wide, smooth piece of wood that had a handle which they would push towards the incline and then draw it back towards himself, and then push it again etc. causing the clay to smear and smoothen. The pushing movement is referred to as "מעגל" - "ma'agal", and the drawing motion is referred to as "מושך" - "moshech". The wooden [tool] is referred to as a "מעגילה" - "ma'agilah" [a trowel].

If He Was Descending - [If ] the killer [was descending] the ladder and then fell off it killing [the victim] with [the force of] his body, he is exiled. All of these cases are [examples of] downward motion, which is what is required in order to obligate exile, as the Gemara derives [from the words of the verse] "and he caused to fall upon him."

GEMARA: The Gemara asks with regard to the principle that one is exiled only if he killed unintentionally through a downward motion: From where are these matters derived? It is derived from a verse, as Shmuel says that the verse states with regard to those exiled to a city of refuge: “And he cast it down upon him and dies” (Numbers 35:23), indicating that one is not liable to be exiled unless the item falls in a downward motion.

MISHNA: If the blade of an ax or hatchet was displaced from its handle, and it flew through the air and killed a person, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi says: He is not exiled, and the Rabbis say: He is exiled. If part of a tree that is being split flew through the air and killed a person, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi says: The murderer is exiled, and the Rabbis say: He is not exiled.

And there is the unintentional killer who acts in a way very similar to an intentional killer, that he acts in an almost criminal fashion due to excessive carelessness or negligence. And the law is that there is no exile available for him due to his grave sin, and exile does not provide him atonement. Sanctuary Cities are not meant for him as they exist only for those who have merited exile. Therefore, if the Blood Redeemer finds him anywhere and kills him, the Redeemer is held not guilty.

GEMARA: It is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said to the Rabbis: Is it stated in the verse: And the blade displaces from its wood handle? But isn’t it stated: “And the blade displaces from the wood” (Deuteronomy 19:5), indicating that it is a wood chip from the tree that causes the death of the person? And furthermore: Etz is stated below: “And the blade displaces from the etz,” and etz is stated above, earlier in the same verse: “And his hand wields the ax to cut down the etz.” Just as the term etz stated above is referring to wood from the tree that is being split, so too, the term etz stated below is referring to wood from the tree that is being split, not to the wood of the ax handle.

Rav Ḥiyya bar Ashi says that Rav says: And both of them, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi and the Rabbis, interpreted one verse to arrive at their rulings. The verse states: “And the blade displaces [venashal] from the wood.” Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi holds: The tradition of the manner in which the verses in the Torah are written is authoritative, and one derives halakhot based on the manner in which the words are written, not on the manner in which they are vocalized. And it is written venishel, a transitive verb, indicating that the blade displaced wood chips from the tree. And the Rabbis maintain: The vocalization of the Torah is authoritative, and we read the term as venashal, an intransitive verb indicating that the blade is displaced from its wooden handle and kills a person.

The Gemara asks: And does Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi hold that the tradition of the manner in which the verses in the Torah are written is authoritative?

But doesn’t Rav Yitzḥak, son of Rabbi Yosef, say that Rabbi Yoḥanan says: Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, and Rabbi Yehuda ben Roetz, and Beit Shammai, and Rabbi Shimon, and Rabbi Akiva all hold that the vocalization of the Torah is authoritative, not the manner in which it is written? How can Rav Ḥiyya bar Ashi ascribe Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi’s ruling to the contrary opinion? The Gemara answers: That is the reason that Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said to the Rabbis: And furthermore. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said to them: If the tradition of the manner in which the verses in the Torah are written is authoritative, that supports my interpretation of the verse; if not, there is an additional proof.

The Transmission Is What Matters - how the word is to be written as it was transmitted to Moses, that is the manner in which we are to expound it, and not the way it pronounced. When you read "V'nashal" you are inserting the pronunciation of a "Aleph" or of a "Hey" between the "Nun" and "Shin", however according to the authoritative tradition it is written as "V'nishal," meaning dislodged, i.e. that the iron caused [a splinter] to become dislodged from the wood [tree] which hit his fellow. Whereas the Rabanan are of the opinion that it the way it pronounced which matters, and it is read "V'nashal" as a verb, i.e. the iron [ax head] itself became dislodged from its wood [handle].

Rav Pappa said: In the case of one who cast a clod of earth onto a palm tree, and he severed dates from the tree, and the dates went upon a person and killed him, we have arrived at the dispute between Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi and the Rabbis in a case where one was splitting wood and a wood chip flew through the air and killed a person In that case, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi deems him liable to be exiled, and the Rabbis deem him exempt from exile. The Gemara asks: Isn’t that obvious? The cases are identical. What novel element is Rav Pappa introducing? The Gemara answers: The parallel between the cases drawn by Rav Pappa is necessary. Lest you say that these severed dates were not propelled by the force of his action but are like an item propelled by a force generated by the force of his action, and even Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi would concede that in that case he is exempt from exile, Rav Pappa teaches us that the dates are considered to have been severed by the force of his action.

The Gemara asks: But according to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, how can you find circumstances of a force generated by the force of his action where he would be exempt from exile? The Gemara answers: It can be found in a case where one cast a clod of earth and it struck a branch of the palm tree, and the branch, propelled by the clod, proceeded to strike a cluster of dates [likhevasa] and severed the dates from the branch they were on and the dates proceeded to kill a person.