Matos/Maasei

The end of our parsha concerns the unintentional murderer, one who kills unintentionally and has to go to a city of refuge. In a seeming paradox, the only way for the accidental murderer to go free is by the death of the כהן גדול.

Numerous reasons are given. Rashi maintains that the כהן גדול should have davened that a tragedy like that could never happen. So great is the responsibility upon the כהן גדול that the gemara in Makkos says that, if during the trial, the כהן גדול dies, a new one is appointed after which he's sentenced, he doesn’t go free until the second כהן גדול dies.

The gemara continues by asking what should the second כהן גדול have done. Now the unintentional murderer has to wait for him to die. The gemara answers that he should have davened that the murderer be acquitted & he didn't.

What is the great concern we have as to what the כהן גדול must have done wrong? Why must he have done something wrong? Why must we find reasons why the unintentional murderer’s freedom hinges on his death ?

The mishna tells us that even though the cities of refuge on the other side of the Jordan were set aside right away, they didn't afford refuge until the ones in Eretz Yisroel were separated too. The משך חכמה gives an interesting explanation as to why; whenever one would kill unintentionally & have to go to a city of refuge, he always held out hope that the כהן גדול would die. However, they all knew that אלעזר, the כהן גדול, would be the one to distribute the land. Had the ones in Transjordan worked, there would have been no hope of anyone going free because the land wasn't divided yet, therefore אלעזר wasn't going to die. The Torah wouldn't sentence someone to exile with no hope of freedom! Therefore, those cities couldn't be functional until after they had captured & divided Eretz Yisroel & set aside three more in Eretz Yisroel.

Interestingly, the mother of the כהן גדול would bring these unintentional murderers food & drink in order that they shouldn't daven that the כהן גדול die. Imagine, these careless individuals who had no regard for human life that they killed another person, would even daven for the כהן גדול, the leader of Klal Yisroel, to die so they could go home. Had the mother of the כהן גדול not befriended them & given them food & drink convincing them not to pray, their tefilos would have helped to cause the כהן גדול to die early; how powerful is prayer that comes from the heart!

I heard an interesting peshat from Rabbi Paysach Krohn. The second beracha in the Amida is מחיה מתים which we all take to refer to the resurrection of the dead. In fact, it says  מחיה מתים three times in that beracha. What are they all referring to?

Rabbi Krohn says that the first one is referring to the sustenance that Hashem gives us, for without food we couldn't live. The second one says מלך ממית ומחיה , king who causes death & restores life, refers to one who is on the brink of death when miraculously Hashem brings him back to life. The third one refers to the afterworld.

There's a story told about the sister of the חזון איש that exemplifies this. When she was a little girl, she got very sick & all the doctors gave up hope. She lay there lifeless with no hope at all; the chevra kadisha were already by the bedside just waiting but the חזון איש didn't give up. He davened with all his heart & soul that the little girl would recover. With tears & a broken heart he cried out to Hashem to heal her. His prayers broke through the heavens & miraculously she started to recover.

This is perhaps why we are so concerned about why the freedom of the unintentional murderer hinges on the death of the כהן גדול. We see that the fault of the כהן גדול was that he didn't daven hard enough for the people but this murderer now would daven from the heart. This teaches us that prayer is the ultimate tool; no matter how bad things seem, there always has to be a way out. Just as the Torah wouldn't put even a murderer in a situation where there's no way out, we would not be put in a situation with no way out. We could learn from the murderer that when it seems there's no other way out, the answer is prayer. If we were to pray from the heart and really mean what we daven for, then Hashem will answer us!