Murder - Bloodshed

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Religious Sin, Ethical Sin and the Punishment of Exile
Prof. Jonathan Grossman
This article compares the sins of Adam and Cain; and suggests that Adam’s sin is a prototype for religious sin; while Cain’s sin is a prototype for moral sin.
Blood and the Murdering of Animals
Prof. Jonathan Grossman
What is the Torah's attitude toward eating meat? This article discusses the matter while examining the prohibition to eat meant outside the Mishkan, and the commandment to cover the blood of animals and poultry.
The Cities of Refuge
Rabbi Yehuda Rock
The laws of Go’el HaDam (the blood avenger) do not express the ideal aspiration of the Torah, but rather the Torah's consideration of human need – a need that should ideally not exist, and which the Torah expects to pass from the world. The laws pertaining to a murderer in the context of the Beit Din are eternal.
Navot's Vineyard (Part 2)
"Have You Murdered And Also Inherited?!" ֠- Ahav's Responsibility
Rabbi Elchanan Samet
While Izevel plots and executes Navot’s murder, Ahav becomes a hidden but necessary partner. The attempt to enjoy the fruits of wickedness without dirtying one's hands with the actual deed, may work in relation to other people, but it cannot work in the real reckoning between man and God. This is Eliyahu’s harsh accusation towards Ahav.
Navot's Vineyard (Part 4)
Ahav's Personal Punishment and the Punishment of His Household
Rabbi Elchanan Samet
Eliyahu’s divine message to Ahav that informs him of the end of the rule of his house, relates both to the murder of Navot and to the idol worship in his time – both instigated by Izevel. Navot’s murder is viewed as more severe than idol worship and thus serves as the catalyst for this message.
Yoash's Reversal
Rabbi Alex Israel
Melakhim describes Yoash as a good king. A different story is described in great detail in Divrei Hayamim. After Yehoyada's death, Yoash abandons the guidance of the Kohanim, turns to idolatry and murders the prophet Zekharya in the courtyard of the Beit HaMikdash - the son of the man who saved him and made him king. Just as he betrays, his servants betray him and kill him after he is injured in a battle against Hazael - King of Aram who despite being outnumbered defeats Yoash and walks away with great spoils. Different theories are suggested as how to reconcile the two accounts but it remains unclear why this episode is hardly even alluded to in Melakhim.
The Chiastic Structure of Vayikra Chapter 20
Rabbi Menachem Leibtag
תאריך פרסום: תש"ע | |
The chiastic structure is a tool used to understand the meaning of a chapter of Tanakh in much greater depth. This lecture illustrates how this method creates order within verses that appear random and superfluous, and then examines Vayikra Chapter 20 by applying the chiastic structure in order to gain an appreciation about what it means to be representing God through sanctity.
From Love to Betrayal: Yirmiyahu's First Prophecy of Rebuke
Rabbi David Sabato
Yirmiyahu's first prophecy conveyed to Israel is comprised of a series of sections, linked one to the next linguistically and substantively. Together they paint a difficult, varied, and penetrating picture of the moral and spiritual state of the people. The prophecy opens with one of the most moving accounts of the early relationship between God and His people, but it immediately takes a sharp turn to the difficult, spiritual reality in the days of Yirmiyahu, when the people have abandoned and betrayed their God. The description of Israel's youthful devotion in the wilderness serves only as a background and introduction to the essence of the passage – a prophecy of rebuke.
"Shall He Return to her Again?" - A Collection of Prophecies of Repentance
Rabbi David Sabato
In chapter 3, Yirmiyahu presents a prophecy that portrays the difficulty inherent in the repentance of the Jewish People through a parable. Israel is compared to a woman who has left her husband – God - for other men - idols. Such a woman is halakhically forbidden to return to her first husband and that sin pollutes and defiles the Land of Israel. Can Israel possibly return to God?
Shabbat in the Book of Yirmiyahu
Rabbi David Sabato
In this unique prophecy, Yirmiyahu discusses the breach of the covenant of Shabbat. While the Torah and other prophecies connect immorality with the destruction of Jerusalem, Yirmiyahu stresses the importance of the observation of Shabbat as a condition for the people's continued existence in their country due to its nature as a national covenant with a most public nature. This prophecy is compared the prophecy in chapter 7, as well as to the prophecies of the other prophets regarding Shabbat.
He Speaks in Allegories
Dr. Tova Ganzel
Throughout the chapters dating to the years prior to the destruction there is a motif of words and terms that relate to women. This image is fully realized with the death of the prophet’s wife, symbolizing the final destruction of the city.

The detailed description of the unfaithfulness of this woman – Jerusalem – emphasizes the chasm between her humble beginnings, with no lineage and no identity, and the abundance God bestowed upon her and His favors done for her that ultimately end in her betrayal. God’s response is a detailed description of total annihilation.

Yehezkel compares the deeds of the city of Jerusalem to those of Shomron and Sodom. The sin of Sodom, as depicted here, is that despite the economic stability and strength of its inhabitants, they did not support the poor and needy. Yehezkel attributes only social sins to Sodom in order to emphasize the more grievous sins of Jerusalem, which are described as unfaithfulness.

Despite the people’s actions in the present, the covenant that God remembers and maintains even in the future is a covenant of youth, and even at the time of their sin, this historical covenant will stand. This is also why the nation is rebuked just as it is being forgiven.
The Soul that Sins – It Shall Die
Dr. Tova Ganzel
The people of Yehezkel’s generation claimed that since the destruction was inevitable, their individual actions no longer had any importance and it made no difference whether they remained loyal to God’s commandments or not. Others believed that “The way of the Lord is unfair”. Therefore Yehezkel repeats and emphasizes the responsibility of every individual for his actions and the life-and-death consequences that follow. Yehezkel concludes by stating that the people’s claim – that the son dies because of the sins of the father – is simply incorrect.

The prophet also declares that the gates of repentance remain open to the individual. These verses are quite unusual given that nowhere in the book is there any call for the people to mend their ways so that God will not destroy His Temple. Although the prophet here calls upon the people to repent, he offers no promise that this will prevent the destruction; he only speaks of deliverance from the death for the sinners when the destruction comes.

The sins brought about the imminent destruction of the city according to Yehezkel are idolatry, sexual immorality and bloodshed. Yehezkel does not seem to attribute the destruction of the First Temple to the social transgressions of the nation as a whole – in neither the prophecies before nor after the Destruction.

In Chapter 22 as the Destruction of Jerusalem draws nearer the prophet appears to place more of an emphasis on the personal responsibility that the leaders of the people bear for their actions, along with the dire consequences of their corrupt leadership for the nation as a whole. This chapter attributes sins both social and religious in nature to the office-bearers in leadership positions. Thus, the fate of the city is sealed because of idolatry, sexual immorality, bloodshed, and – finally – the deeds of the leadership.
The Destruction of the City
Dr. Tova Ganzel
The prophecy concerning the imminent fate of the city resembles the destruction that Yehezkel had prophesied in the past, but he no longer reacts with cries of surprise or distress, as he had earlier; now he is apathetic. From now on, his pre-destruction prophetic mission is limited to describing the situation in the city.

The description begins presenting a city that is full of bloodshed. Yehezkel’s accusation is against all of Jerusalem’s inhabitants – all classes and positions. Throughout the book Yehezkel avoids using the name Jerusalem altogether. Perhaps this is that the actions of the nation have not only led to the defiling of the name, but have also caused a rupture in God’s attitude towards the eternity of the city.

Chapter 24 contains two accounts of loss: the loss of Yehezkel’s wife, and the loss of the Temple. The connection between Yehezkel’s private loss and the nation’s loss of the Temple indicates that the profaning of the Temple is irreversible: in other words, the Temples that will be built after the destruction of the First Temple represent a new creation, not a recreation of the Temple that existed.

Yehezkel is commanded not to mourn for his wife as a sign to the people. Why, then, is Am Yisrael commanded not to mourn over the Temple?

The withholding of mourning may represent a sort of Divine punishment – or, alternatively, an act of acceptance of God’s will. Perhaps mourning is only significant for the comfort that others give to the mourner and the commandment not to mourn signifies that there are none to comfort.

This prophecy concludes Yehezkel’s prophecies of rebuke uttered before the destruction and ends his term of silence.
Punishment for Animals?
Rabbi David Silverberg
A Difference Between Man and Beast
Rabbi David Silverberg
Rivka - Mother of Yaakov AND Esav
Rabbi David Silverberg