Comentario sobre Números 35:25

עד מות הכהן הגדול [HE SHALL ABIDE IN IT] UNTIL THE DEATH OF THE HIGH PRIEST — because he serves to cause the Shechinah to dwell in Israel and thereby prolong their days, whilst the murderer serves to make the Shechinah depart from Israel and thereby shortens the days of the living. He is therefore not worthy that he should stand before a High Priest (that he should be anywhere near a High Priest) (Sifrei Bamidbar 160:9). Another explanation why he had to remain there until the High Priest’s death: Because the High Priest should have prayed that this misfortune might never happen in Israel in his days (cf. Makkot 11a).

עד מות הכהן הגדול, the Torah had already made clear that exile is a penalty applicable only to inadvertently committed killing. Seeing that there are different degrees of inadvertent killing, i.e. some border on accidents totally beyond the control of the perpetrator, whereas others are acts of criminal negligence, though unintended, the Torah in determining the penalty does not give us a fixed time, but a variable. When the killing occurred only a short time before the death of the High Priest, the exile spends little time in the city of refuge; on the other hand, there may be times when the exile dies in the city of refuge before the High Priest officiating at the time of the “crime,” dies. These variables are taken into account by G’d Who alone is in possession of all the facts, i.e. the degree of negligence which caused this inadvertent killing. The important reference to G’d’s involvement and calculations in all this is found in Exodus 21,13 והאלוקים אנה לידו, “G’d had caused, directed his hand,” (that of the inadvertent killer.)

עד מות הכהן הגדול; according to the plain meaning of the text the word is used to described the senior judge. The idea of “lifetime” imprisonment referring to the lifetime of the judge who imposed the sentence occurs in this sense also in Isaiah 14,17 אסיריו לא פתח ביתו, “he never released his prisoners.”

And the correct [understanding] is like the words of Sforno. And it is [also] possible to say like the author of Mincha Belulah, "[that it is] in order that the high priest will be beloved to the people, and that the joy of his establishment will be increased, since the exiles were return to their land"...

וישב בה עד מות הכהן הגדול, “and he will stay there until the death of the High Priest.” Our sages in Makkot 11 linked the duration of the stay of such an inadvertent killer to the death of the High Priest to the fact that the High Priest is the means of atonement for the people; it had been up to him to beseech G’d for mercy and he had failed to do so (adequately) or the tragedy of this killing would not have occurred. In this manner he shares the guilt of any murder which occurs during his tenure of the office of High Priest.
Furthermore, the death of the High Priest serves as a measure of consolation and comfort for the relatives of the slain person who will no longer bear a grudge concerning that killing. The Sifri on our verse also writes that seeing that the High Priest is the cause for the Presence of the Shechinah to dwell in Israel, i.e. the cause that lengthens the lives of the people, the killer had caused the opposite i.e. he caused the Shechinah to depart [by reducing the average life span of the people through killing someone prematurely, Ed.]. It is not appropriate therefore that the killer present himself in the vicinity of the High Priest. Hence he had to remain confined to the city of refuge.

That this [pitfall] not occur. According to the first interpretation there is the difficulty that it is written, “Until the death of the Kohein Gadol.” The verse is saying that the murderer will live after the death of the Kohein Gadol, since the Kohein Gadol would die sooner, but why would this be? Therefore, Rashi explains, “Because he should have…” However, according to the second interpretation there is the difficulty that even if the Kohein Gadol was punished with death for not praying, why should the murderer return home after the death of the Kohein Gadol? Therefore, he also brings the first reason.

Until the death of the Kohein Gadol. Since the overriding characteristic of Aharon is peace, he should have prayed for the members of his generation that there will only be peace and truth in his day, and then this unpleasant incident would not have happened. Therefore the murderer stays in the City of Refuge until the death of the Kohein Gadol. Thus, he and his entire household pray for the death of the Kohein Gadol, so that he can return home swiftly. For this reason Scripture writes: Until the death of the Kohein Gadol, who was anointed with the sacred oil. Don’t we already know that the Kohein Gadol was anointed with the anointing oil? Scripture is teaching us that the murderer extinguished the light of Hashem, which is the soul of man, and also extinguished the “candle is a mitzvah and the Torah is light.” For sure this Kohein Gadol, who experienced a murder in his days, did not remember that he had the holy anointing oil poured over him. Half of the measure of anointing oil was 250, which is to say twice the value of ner (candle). Every Kohein Gadol needs to stand on guard over these two lamps during his days and to pray for this. Since this event happened during his term of office, he must remain there until the death of the Kohein Gadol.

וישב בה עד מות הכהן הגדול, “and he has to dwell there until the death of the High Priest.” The reason is so that people at large will not accuse the High Priest as not having fulfilled his task of seeing to it that murder does not go unpunished (Deuteronomy 17,12). They would not be able to blame the new high Priest as the killing had not occurred while he was in office.

אשר משח אתו בשמן הקדש WHO WAS ANOINTED WITH THE HOLY OIL — According to its plain sense, this is one of the elliptical sentences — for it does not expressly mention who anointed him, but it is the same as אשר משחו המושח בשמן המשחה “… the High Priest whom he who carried out the anointing had anointed with the holy oil”. — Our Rabbis, however, expounded it in Treatise Makkot 11b as a proof for a law: that it intends to teach that if, before the sentence on him has been passed that he should go into a city of refuge, the High Priest died and they appointed another in his stead, and afterwards his case was finished, he returns home through the death of the second, because it is said, אשר משח אתו. But did he anoint the priest or did the priest anoint him? for the words may literally mean either: “until the death of the High Priest whom he (the murderer) had anointed” or “until the death of the High Priest who has anointed him (the murderer)” — but the words are used to include the case of the High Priest who was anointed in his days (and whom, as it were he had anointed), viz., that he (such a High Priest) causes him to return home through his death.

אשר משח אותו, “whom one had anointed.” The subject המושח is missing in this verse. It is one of numerous verses where this occurs. Our sages in Makkot 11 derive from this missing word that if a High Priest died during the period that the court had to decide if the killer was an intentional killer or not, and a new High Priest was appointed prior to the end of the trial, the killer has to remain in the city of refuge until the death of the second High Priest. The reason that although the second High Priest was not even in office yet is still associated with this killer is that the new appointee should have prayed that the court would find the killer as innocent of wrongdoing instead of convicting him of manslaughter through negligence. [I believe the underlying linkage is that the killer confined in the city of refuge prays for the demise of the High Priest so that he can go home. Ed.]

Who anointed him. The verse implies that the murderer anointed the Kohein Gadol with the sacred oil, therefore one must say that this is one of the shortened passages…