Finding refuge – Mass’ei
Was this for the sake of protection against an avenger? Was it to punish the manslayer and prevent him from killing again? Was it a means of expiation for his action?
Samson Raphael Hirsch adopts the third theory, stating: “This retention in the city of asylum is not punishment but expiation, redemption: to redeem himself from the burden of the guilt feeling which weighs heavily upon him. The expiatory sense is also borne out by the devoted and sympathetic way in which the local community takes care of his physical and spiritual needs”.
Providing for the needs of the manslayer is not only a matter of giving him shelter, food and water. Maimonides points out that if the manslayer is a student, his own teacher goes along with him to the city of refuge so that his studies will not suffer. This applies even if there are teachers in the city since, as Rabbenu Nissim says, “one does not learn from every teacher”.
In a wider sense we can all learn from this provision. It is not that we are likely to be guilty of manslaughter, God forbid: but a person who is away from home should always find an appropriate way to take his or her teacher along.
It may be in the form of books to enable the regular use of one’s mind; but certainly in the ethical sense the thought of one’s parents and teachers should never be absent so that the sages’ words about Joseph will apply – “He saw his father in his mind’s eye and he knew he could not sin”.
