The Premeditated Murderer Taken Even From the Altar

"But if a man comes presumptuously upon his neighbor to slay him with guile" (Exodus 21:14). "Presumptuously" means nothing other than with deliberate intent, as it says, "the prophet has spoken it presumptuously" (Deuteronomy 18:22). "A man" excludes a minor. "Upon his neighbor" excludes others; "his neighbor" excludes a resident alien. I might have excluded the others, who have no commandments within Israel, but not yet excluded the resident alien, who does have commandments within Israel; therefore Scripture says "his neighbor" to exclude others, and "his neighbor" to exclude the resident alien. "To slay him with guile" excludes one who intended to kill this person and killed that one. "To slay him with guile" refers to one who comes against him by stratagems, like Joab, who killed Abner, as it is written, "And Joab took him aside in the gate to speak with him quietly" (II Samuel 3:27). "From My altar." Thus, had he been an unintentional killer, the altar would have given him refuge. And only the roof of the altar of the eternal House gives refuge, and it gives refuge only to the unintentional killer; but the deliberate killer, even a priest with the service in his hand, is pushed away from it and put to death. Rabbi Yose said: This is an argument from the lesser to the greater. If the Temple service, which overrides the Sabbath, may be set aside in order to put a person to death, life for life, then the Sabbath, which the service overrides, should by right be set aside in order to save a person whose life is in doubt. "You shall take him." From this I know only of the murderer; how do I include the others who are to be put to death? Scripture says "you shall take, you shall take him." "That he may die" and not be exiled, and not be flogged; "that he may die" and not be otherwise penalized. Another interpretation of "from My altar": how do we know that the Sanhedrin must sit near the altar? Scripture says, "from My altar you shall take him that he may die." And how do we know that capital sentences are carried out only while the House stands? Scripture says, "from My altar you shall take him that he may die" [that is, only if there is an altar do you execute]. From here they said: forty years before the destruction of the Second Temple, capital jurisdiction was removed from Israel, because the Sanhedrin went into exile and were not in their place in the Sanctuary.