|
|
July 28, 2000/25 Tammuz 5760, Vol. 52, No.46
What to do when accidents happen
Torah Study
ANDREW DUBIN
Matot Mas'ei/Numbers 30:2-36:13
Who among us has never had a special hiding place as a child? A place to which we could retreat if we needed a safe haven from the complications of society?
Mine was the top shelf of my bedroom's walk-in closet. Sometimes I would go there simply to be alone. Other times it was my escape after I had done something embarrassing or wrong.
No doubt my parents always knew exactly where I was. If my transgression had been intentional, they would come to find me in order to mete out the appropriate punishment. But when I had transgressed inadvertently, I knew I was safe on the top shelf of the closet because my parents respected the sanctity of asylum.
They recognized that when the time was right, I would climb down and reenter society, revitalized.
We read in this week's parashah, Matot-Mas'ei:
"You shall provide yourselves with places to serve you as cities of refuge to which a manslayer who has killed a person unintentionally may flee. The cities shall serve you as a refuge from the avenger...
"The assembly shall protect the manslayer from the blood-avenger, and the assembly shall restore him to the city of refuge to which he fled, and there he shall remain until the death of the high priest." (Numbers 35:10-11, 12, 25)
It might appear that the biblical cities of refuge and my bedroom closet served the same function. By being designated as places of refuge for those who had committed unintentional transgressions, both sites provided asylum to the perpetrators of unintentional yet pain-causing acts. Both provided an inadvertent transgressor with the opportunity to retreat and reenter society with a clean slate at the appropriate time.
However, on closer examination, we note at least one critical difference: Whereas the top shelf of my closet served to protect me and my needs only, the cities of refuge simultaneously served to protect two diametrically opposed constituencies - the inadvertent manslayer and the victim's family and friends.
The victim's family had already lost their loved one. And since the killing, by definition, was accidental, future deterrence of similar acts of violence played no part in this instance.
Rather, the cities of refuge represent the biblical recognition of a striking reality. An accidental killing raises a serious ethical dilemma, namely leaving someone in a situation tempted to commit a premeditated killing for the sake of vengeance.
Jacob Milgrim writes: "It is a basic theological postulate that the Divine Presence cannot abide in a land polluted by murder; the offense leads to the pollution of earth and the abandonment by God of His sanctuary and people." (JPS Torah Commentary, Numbers, p. 291)
By removing himself or herself from the community, the inadvertent manslayer removes not only the taint of the blood he or she spilled but also the taint of the blood a potential avenger might spill in response.
Ultimately, our tradition teaches that atonement and forgiveness are both possible and necessary, especially in the case of accidental transgression.
Although the existence of the cities of refuge does not minimize the severe defilement of spilled blood, it nonetheless specifies the time frame for a manslayer's absolution. With the death of the high priest, which serves as atonement for the accidental transgression, the inadvertent manslayer is permitted to return home and resume his or her life.
The potential blood avengers are under strict theological obligation to permit the inadvertent manslayer to return home in peace. The blood defilement has been cleansed, and life continues.
Andrew Dubin is the director of the UAHC Meitav Youth Fellowship for Reform Jewish Leadership and the interim director of the UAHC College Education Department.
|
