A Thought on Parshios Matos - Masei

"...arei miklat..." "...cities of refuge..." (35:12) The Torah devotes a number of parshios to discussing the fate of the accidental killer. In Israel, cities of refuge were established where such people would reside in exile. The Talmud (Makos 10a) observes that because the Torah emphasizes that those residents must reside and "live" there (see Devarim 4:42), they must replicate the quality of life which they had led before the tragedy which led to their being sentenced to exile. The focus was on maintaining their spiritual practices, rather than falling into states of self-degradation and lifestyle decay, which can happen when one must face the long consequences of their errors. The Talmud asserts that this concept of "living" in exile included the rule that, if the killer was a scholar, he must arrange for his rabbi to follow him, lest he loose his connection with Torah. In turn, if the one who killed was a rabbi, his disciples must follow him into exile lest he and they lose their spiritual connection. Rabbeinu Avigdor explains that Chazal's inference here (that "life" refers to "Torah life") is not mystical or midrashic. Rather, he suggests that their lesson is "pshat" - it is explicit and also halachically obvious to anyone who understands the value which we attribute to Torah. Life, for a Jew, equals Talmud Torah, writes Rabbeinu Avigdor. When the Torah says in parshas Nitzavim (Devarim 30:15) "Behold! I place before you this day the life", it is also a reference to the lifestyle of Torah, as it says (Mishlei 8:35) "for those who find Me have found life". We have a similar thought in the Rambam (Hilchos Rotzeach 7:1) who writes that to sentence a learned man into such exile without Torah would be like sentencing him to death. During this time of year, many of us vacation. We take off to pleasant spots, seeking refuge from our stresses and our labor. For a Torah Jew to leave his or her Torah study behind, the vacation becomes an exile. When we travel with Torah, we have our refuge. Good Shabbos. D Fox