"And these are the ordinances..."

26 Shevat 5782
Erev Shabbat Kodesh
Parashat Mishpatim - Mevorchim

From the Stone Edition Chumash Commentary:

Murder and Manslaughter

Murder incurs the death penalty, but only if it is premeditated.  ...However, if someone killed through carelessness, but unintentionally ... he is not deserving of death, though his crime must be punished.  For such an offender, the penalty is exile in specially designated cities.  

...In describing the case of an accidental homicide, the Torah says God had caused it to come to his hand.  It is a fundamental principle of the Torah that events are not haphazard.  Always there is the guiding hand of God.  "Sudden, coincidental" happenings only seem to be so.  When someone is struck by the tragedy of having unintentionally killed a fellow human being, surely a traumatic experience, he should realize that since God had caused it, it indicates that he must have committed some sin or crime that went unpunished, and that his current victim must have been guilty of a capital offense that went undetected.  By causing one person to cause the other's death, God was squaring the accounts, for God's justice is unimpeachable; it is only we who are incapable of comprehending it.

~ SHABBAT SHALOM ~