“Then, Moses designated three cities beyond the Jordan toward the rising sun” – what is “toward the rising sun”? Rabbi Yosei ben Rabbi Ḥanina said: The Holy One blessed be He said to Moses: ‘Cause the sun to shine for the murderer and give him refuge where he can be exiled, so that he will not be eradicated due to the iniquity of murder, just as the sun illuminates the world.’66Just as the sun brings light to the world and rises each day even after having set the previous day, the unintentional murderer will have hope for a new life.
“For the murderer to flee there, who kills his neighbor unintentionally and he did not hate him previously; he shall flee to one of these cities and live” (Deuteronomy 4:42). Another matter: “For the murderer to flee there” – the Rabbis said: To what is the matter comparable? To a craftsman who was crafting a statue of the king. As he was crafting it, it broke in his hands.
The king said: ‘Had he done so intentionally, he would be killed. Now that he broke it unintentionally, he shall be exiled and sentenced to hard labor.’ So, the Holy One blessed be He decreed: “One who sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed” (Genesis 9:6). But one who kills another unwittingly, unintentionally, will be exiled from his place, as it is stated: “He shall flee to one of these cities and live.”
The Holy One blessed be He said: In this world, because the evil inclination is there, [people] kill one another and die.67The Sages state that an unintentional killing may occur when one individual committed murder and was not prosecuted, and another killed unintentionally and was not forced into exile. God will arrange for the second individual to unintentionally kill the first, and have to go into exile, such that both suffer the appropriate consequences (Makkot 10b).
But in the future, I will uproot the evil inclination from you, and there will be no death in the world – “He will eliminate death forever” (Isaiah 25:308).