Комментарий к Бамидбар 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.”