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CITIES OF REFUGE

Pierre Ostiguy - granby

Protect involuntary murderer

The Bible recognizes that a murder can be committed unintentionally.
To avoid vendetta and revenge, the Torah offers six cities of refuge for this type of murderer.


Numbers chapter 35
9 - The Lord spoke to Moses in these terms:
10 - "Speak unto the children of Israel, and say to them: As you go over Jordan to win the land of Canaan,
11 - choose your own cities to serve you mentioned asylum: there is refuge the murderer, manslaughter.
12 - These cities will serve, at home, asylum against the avenger of blood, so that the murderer should die before he had appeared before the meeting to be held.
13 - As for the cities to give you six cities of refuge.
14 - You will grant three cities beyond the Jordan, and three others in the land of Canaan, they will be cities of refuge.
15 - For children of Israel for the stranger and the resident among them, these six cities will serve as an asylum, where anybody can take refuge killed someone unintentionally.
16 - What if he hit her with an iron and she died, is a murderer the murderer shall be put to death.
17 - If, arming himself with a stone that could result in death, he struck a mortal blow, it's a murderer the murderer shall be put to death.
18 - Similarly, if armed with a wooden object that can cause death, he dealt a mortal blow, it's a murderer the murderer shall be put to death.
19 - This is the avenger of blood shall slay the murderer, if he meets him, let him die.
20 - If someone hits one by him or hate starts something premeditated, and he dies;
21 - or if, enmity, it is a blow with his hand and he dies , the homicide must be put to death, it is a murderer, the avenger of blood will kill him once he meets him.
22 - But if he struck accidentally, without hostility, or if some object thrown at him without intention to achieve it;
23 - even if, holding a stone that can cause death, it makes it fall on someone he had not seen and killed, but also be his enemy nor wish him ill,
24 - the meeting will judge between the homicide and the avenger of blood, based on those rules.
25 - And this meeting will subtract the murderer to the action of the avenger of blood, and it will extend to the city of refuge where he had retired, and remained there until the death of high priest, we have anointed with holy oil

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D after a speech by the Lubavitcher Rebbe
fr.chabad


These "cities of refuge" (ערי מקלט) in which exiles were murderers involuntary one hand, were well protected from vengeful and, secondly, to expiate their sins by exile. These cities were six in number and, according to the Torah, "When God expand your borders, you might add three new cities ( Choftim 19, 8-9 .) The Rambam teaches that this verse of the Pentateuch attests to the messianic age, for "expanding the frontiers" he says never took place and it is obvious that Gd n has not commanded in vain. ( Laws to the Kings, ch. 11 § 5)

He explained, moreover, that the fact that the Messianic promise is a parameter of a Command of the Torah gives Deliverance the binding and immutable of Commandments. ( ; Shabbat 129b)

We face a paradox on one side, the messianic advent is guaranteed by the Torah because it is a Command cities of refuge, like the rest of the Torah " ; will undergo the transformation, or retrenchment, or additions "and on the other hand, it expressed precisely by the addition three new cities of refuge!

But there is no contradiction in this, because it does not add anything to the Torah, but an addition within the framework of the Torah. This, considering the two different eras that are the current period and the messianic era, assigns different laws: six cities of refuge now, nine Era messianic.

The subject cities of refuge is generally linked to the concept of repairing the faults. Indeed, anyone who commits a foul is considered to have, to herself, " shed the blood of man . In fact, at fault, she turned the divine vitality that was intended to holy things to the forces of evil. This person is still considered as "unintentional murder" because his real desire is to fulfill the will of his Creator and his only fault is due to the fact that its bad overcame the addiction. The remedy to that goes through the topic of "cities of refuge" that, spiritually, correspond to the study of Torah. Indeed, the Torah "includes" the man in it, saving it from the "avenger of blood," Satan, and to make atonement and reparation for his fault.

So he must consider the difference between the cities of refuge in our times and those of the messianic era. Today, for the spiritual "cities of refuge" is the study Part of the revealed Torah. That's what the number of six cities mentioned: the six orders of Mishnah, which include laws relating to permissible and forbidden things, purity and impurity, etc.., In which the refinement takes place in the world. In future times, however, there will be another kind of "cities of refuge," according to the level of spirituality that marks this period. Although it no harm will be more committed in the world in the messianic era, the existence of evil remain in the first part of this period, before the totally fulfilled prophecy " I'd lost the spirit of impurity from the earth . There will therefore still the need for Torah study which ensures that this evil will not materialize, a study of a higher level than before: that the deep part of the Torah. That's what the "three additional cities' allude: the Torah is indeed a" triple Torah (Pentateuch - Prophets - Hagiographs), adding three cities represents a change that will affect the entire Torah, namely the revelation of his deep part.

Another allusion to this is the fact that the three cities in addition to the Messianic period cities Kini of Knize and Kadmon, who were promised to Abraham and have never been conquered. However, the Chassidut teaches that the land of the seven Canaanite nations that have already been conquered (the ones we have today) represent the seven emotional attributes ( Midoth ), while the three cities will be added in the future ( Kini, Knize and Kadmon ) represent intellectual powers ( Chabad - wisdom, understanding, knowledge). The reason is that currently, most of the divine service is the refinement of character (בירור המידות) whereas, in future times, the work will refine the intellect itself, which does be possible to reveal when the "new Torah comes out of me"

This is also the reason for adding the three cities of refuge, which represent the hidden secrets of the Torah. The "murderer" as we have said, symbolizes all the negative issues, which the divine light is accessible only through their negation. The residence of the murderer in a city of refuge represents the joining of two opposites: the high things that can not normally be captured only through an "understanding If not, here are integrated within , through the study of the "new Torah comes out of me."