Makos 12a (2)
Thanks to Eli Chitrik
Points from the Shiur 1/13/15
We re-mentioned briefly the Sicha of the Rebbe of why a person cannot leave the Arei Miklat even if the entire Jewish nation needs him; this is because once he leaves he becomes a “Dead Man Walking” (gavra bar k’tala) therefore the Torah cannot command a person, so to speak, to become a dead man.
(See Shiur 12/23/14, item #2 here)
We consistently throughout our Mesechta mentioned the concept of the Goel Hadam. Loosely translated as a relative to the victim. However we never specified as who is eligible to become the Goel Hadam. Can any relative can become the Goel Hadam?
- The Rambam (1:2) maintains that the person next in line to inherit the dead man becomes the Goel Hadam. It follows the Din of Yerusha. If he can’t do, it passes to the next closest inheritor. We discussed the illusive source for his ruling.
The Gemara raises the question about whether or not a son can become the Goel Hadam against his father. For example: if a father inadvertently kills his son, (Oy vey…), and the victim has a brother. Does this other son (the brother) become the Goel Hadam and thus have a right or obligation to pursue his father or not? The Gemara goes back and forth and concludes that there is a special provision that categorically prohibits a son to harm a parent in any way.
- We learned the Rabbi Akiva Eiger who asks a very simple question based on the Rambam’s order of the Goel Hadam: Why do we need this special provision? How can a son ever become a Goel Hadam against his father?
If the next person in line to inherit the dead becomes the Goel Hadam then it is obvious (in the example of the father killing his son) that the second son cannot kill his father. This is because this brother is not the next person in line to inherit the dead brother. The next person in line to inherit a son is the father! (i.e. the killer himself)?!
So why the entire the discussion and this special provision in the Gemara?
- R’ Akiva Eiger comes up with a scenario (not of a father who killed his own son, but) where the son can in theory indeed become the Goel Hadam towards the father.
How is that?
A man marries a woman and they have a child. They subsequently get divorced. After their divorce the father inadvertently kills his ex-wife.
In such a case the next person in line to inherit the mother is the son. Therefore it is possible that the son can become the Goel Hadam towards his father.
It is in such a case that the Gemara states due to the special provision that a son cannot harm his father. Were it not for this provision, he would become the Goel Hadam – for he inherits his mother.
7- We spoke about a Shogeg living in a tunnel that extends from the Orei Miklot to the outside world. Is this bunker a refuge for him?
