The Unintended Killer and How God Steers Guilt to the Guilty

"And one who did not lie in wait" (Exodus 21:13): he was included in the general rule and went out to be treated as a special case; once a matter goes out from the general rule to teach, it teaches something of its own kind, going out to be lenient and not to be stringent. "And one who did not lie in wait": "who did not lie in wait" means only one who did not intend it, as it says (Numbers 35:22), "or threw upon him any object without lying in wait." "But God brought it to his hand" (Exodus 21:13): "brought" [innah] means only that He sets it up for him, as it says (2 Kings 5:7), "only consider and see how he is seeking a pretext [mit'aneh] against me," and as it says of Samson (Judges 14:4), "for he was seeking a pretext [to'anah] against the Philistines." "But God brought it to his hand": merit is brought about through the worthy, and guilt through the guilty. This is what Trajan asked of Pappus and his brother Lulianus when he decreed death upon them. He said to them: if you are of the people of Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, let your God come and save you from my hand as He saved them from the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. They said to him: Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were wholly righteous, and Nebuchadnezzar was a king worthy that a miracle be done through him. But you are a wicked king, and not worthy that a miracle be done through you. And we are deserving of death before the Omnipresent, and if you do not put us to death, the Omnipresent has many executioners many bears, many lions, many leopards, many serpents and scorpions to harm us. Rather, the Holy One, blessed be He, has handed us over into your hand only so that He may exact our punishment from your hand in the future. Even so, he killed them. They say that he had not stirred from there before dispatches came from Rome and they split his skull with clubs. "And I will appoint for you" (Exodus 21:13): in your lifetime this teaches that the cities of refuge are revealed [to him]. "A place": it is said here "a place" and it is said elsewhere "a place"; just as the "place" stated elsewhere refers to the Levite cities that give refuge, so too the "place" stated here refers to a Levite camp that gives refuge. "To which he may flee": there shall be his dwelling, there shall be his burial.