פּירוש אויף דברים 4:44

“This is the Teaching” [4:44]. This teaches us that the Torah is a city of refuge for a person. Whoever studies Torah, is protected by the Torah. Nobody can do anything to him when he studies Torah, as we find with Rabbi Hisda. The angel of death could do nothing to him, since he studied day and night. His mouth did not stop studying Torah. The angel of death went and split a large tree that was very strong. Rabbi Hisda stopped studying and the angel of death killed him. Resh Lakish said: the angel of the city of Rome will run to the city of refuge in the days of the Messiah, since he will think, I have allowed many Israelites to be killed. I am a killer. However, he will make three mistakes. The first is that he will run to Bazarah. This is not the city of refuge, but Bezer is the city of refuge. The second is that he killed Israelites willingly and the city of refuge was given to those who killed accidentally. The third mistake is that he is an angel and the cities of refuge only accept human beings and not angels.¹³Bahya, Deuteronomy, 4:43.

וזאת התורה AND THIS IS THE LAW — this which he was about to set forth after this chapter.

וזאת התורה, the theoretical, philosophical part of the Torah. The word זאת refers to what has just been concluded.