Commento su Deuteronomio 19:13

לא תחוס עינך THINE EYE SHALL NOT PITY [HIM] — i.e. that thou shall not say, The first (the one) person has already been killed, why should we kill this also, so that two Israelites will be killed? (Sifrei Devarim 187:7).

THINE EYE SHALT NOT PITY HIM. “This means that you shall not say, ‘The first person has already been killed. Why should we kill him also, with the result that two people will be killed?’” This is Rashi’s language quoting the Sifre.²⁶⁵Sifre, Shoftim 187. The meaning thereof is that you should not say, “Rather than having pity on the blood of the slain it would be better to have pity on the blood of the living one.”
The correct interpretation of the verse is as follows: Scripture has commanded concerning those liable to death, so thou shalt put away the evil from the midst of thee,²⁶⁶Above, 17:7. this being a positive commandment. But in matters of prevalent danger [to society], He warned further with a negative commandment that [the murderers] not be spared from [punishment at] our hands, neither on account of fear of them nor because we might show them mercy. He mentioned the same in the case of the inciter.²⁶⁷Ibid., 13:9. He also stated, Thou shalt not suffer a sorceress to live²⁶⁸Exodus 22:17. because of her being full of tumult²⁶⁹Ezekiel 22:5. who sells many through her sorceries.²⁷⁰See Nahum 3:4: that selleth nations through her harlotries. And thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall have no pity²⁷¹Further, 25:12. — this was commanded because the fools praise her for having been a help to her husband [who was fighting with another man], or because embarrassment is common and involves no monetary loss [and therefore the Torah was strict in the punishment thereof]. Similarly in the case of plotting witnesses He commanded that we have no pity on them,²⁷²See Verse 21. [thinking that] because nothing had yet been done to the accused²⁷³See Ramban on Verse 19. [therefore we should not punish them], or perhaps [the strictness is] due to the prevalence of their danger.

ובערת דם נקי מישראל, the penalty for spilling innocent blood in the Holy Land is normally the shedding of the murderer’s blood, which alone brings atonement, no substitutes being allowed, such as financial reparations (compare Numbers 35,33)

לא תחוס עינך, “Your eye shall not pity him.” Rashi, (basing himself on Sifri) understands the psychology of such “pity” as the argument that it suffices that one person has been killed, how can the situation be improved by killing another person? Nachmanides writes that the correct interpretation here is that the principal message of the verse is the positive commandment to eliminate perpetrators of evil (compare Nachmanides’ comments on rule 14 of Maimonides’ tractate ספר המצוות, describing why he included what in his list of 613 commandments.) A secondary consideration, added to reinforce the urgency with which observance of the positive commandment is to be pursued, is this negative commandment to refrain from finding excuses for the killer. Moses already offered a similar consideration when he warned the people not to have pity on people who try to seduce others to worship idols. [A crime committed in the privacy of one’s home. Ed] (Deut. 13,9) When the Torah, in Exodus 22,17 legislates bluntly, without further ado, מכשפה לא תחיה, “you must not allow a sorceress to live,” apparently addressing the commandment only to the female gender, this is misleading. Seeing that women are more involved than men when it comes to sorcery, the wording of the commandment reflects the fact that the lawgiver is aware of this. Men sorcerers are equally liable to execution. (Compare Ezekiel 22,5 and Nachum 3,4) [One tends to have more pity with women, even if they committed crimes, trying to excuse their crimes because of valid motives that might have prompted them. By singling out the women as the standard perpetrators of certain crimes, the Torah tries to counter such tendencies. Another example, even more easily understandable, is found in Deut. 25, 11-12 where the wife who came to the assistance of her husband who was in a life and death struggle with another man, is subject to a severe penalty for the manner in which she intervened. Most people would have sided with the wife, whose motive was simply to save the life of her husband. [The Torah teaches that Hashem’s psychology operates on a different wavelength. Ed.] Humans tend to overlook wrongs done when the wronged party did not suffer tangible loss, money, loss of property, loss of limb, etc., but if “only” pride, dignity, embarrassment were at stake there is a tendency to go easy on the guilty party. “Witnesses” who claim to have witnessed a crime who have been found as having lied before their intended victim has suffered retribution for the supposed crime he had committed, are convicted of precisely the harm they meant to inflict on their victim. Once the damage had been done, and their chicanery did not come to light until it was too late to save their victim, their crime is left to Hashem to deal with, seeing that He is the ultimate arbiter of what is just and what is not

לא תחוס עינך עליו,”your eye shall not pity him,” that you refuse to hand him over to the blood-avenger. You should not argue: “what is the point in another person being killed seeing the first one cannot be brought back.” This is one instance when pity is not only misplaced but is a form of cruelty.

Do not say, the first one has already been killed. Otherwise, why does the verse say, “Do not view him with compassion”? Would you think that any person will have compassion on someone who murdered deliberately after having been warned?

V. 13. לא תחוס וגו׳. Durch einen qualifizierten Mord ist das Leben des Mörders verwirkt, und dieselbe jedes andere irdische Gut überragende Heiligkeit und Heilighaltung eines Tropfen Menschenbluts, welche der ganzen Institution der Miklatstädte zu Grunde liegt und das ganze jüdische Staatswesen charakterisiert, fordert ebenso die Hinrichtung des vorsätzlichen Mörders, wie sie durch jene Institution das Leben jedes Bürgers gegen Fahrlässigkeit, sowie das Leben des unvorsätzlichen Totschlägers gegen Rache zu schützen beabsichtigt. Schonung eines vorsätzlichen Mörders wäre nicht Schonung von Menschenblut, sondern Gleichgültigkeit gegen unschuldig vergossenes Menschenblut. בערת דם הנקי מישראל, es ist zweifelhaft, wie dies zu verstehen wäre, ob es die Schuld oder das Verbrechen ist, welche oder welches durch Handhabung des Rechts von dem jüdischen Staate oder aus dem jüdischen Staate entfernt werden soll. וטוב לך: die Heilighaltung des irdischen Menschenhierseins ist die Grundbedingung des irdischen Menschenheils (vergl. Bamidbar 35, 33 u. 34).

וטוב לך, “that it may go well with you,” so that the number of people guilty of bloodshed may not increase in your land.”

וטוב לך, because the murderer cannot kill additional people, the ones surviving the execution will be awed by having heard or witnessed the execution. (verse 20)

וטוב לך, “and it shall be good for you.” The removal of sources of spilling the blood of innocents is a great mitzvah and in turn will prove to be of great benefit to you, as it will save your own lives, as wasting one’s mercy and pity on murderers will only spawn more deaths by violence not only by the murderers whose lives have been spared, but by others who will be encouraged to achieve their ends by violent means

THAT IT MAY GO WELL WITH THEE. The meaning thereof is that avenging innocent blood is a commandment and is a great blessing to you to deliver your soul from death,²⁷⁴Psalms 33:19. because pity upon murderers causes more bloodshed by these murderers and by others who break away [from society].