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259 is

to relieve the homicide's conscience (Mak. 116;

compare Tosafot, s. v. 'TO). Therefore the banishment to the Asylum must not be interAsylum rupted the condemned man may not a Place of leave the Asylum under any circumExpiation. stances, not even should the interests of the state demand it (Mak. 116). The consciousness of having taken a human life must

never leave thehomicide. When,therefore,theinhabitants of a city of refuge wish to honor such a man, he must declare to them that he is a homicide and unworthy such honor; but should they still persist, he may accept it (Mak. ii. 8 on the confession of crime as part of the atonement, compare Confession). Even the death of the high priest does not entirely wipe out the homicide's guilt; for a man condemned to Asylum may never fill an office, since he has been the cause of an accident (I.e. compare the opinion of R. Judah b. Il'ai, which Maimonides, Hilkot Rozeah, vii. 14, thinks the correct one). The Rabbis so strongly emphasized the guilt of a man who became a homicide against his will, not only because they held that a man is responsible even for his involuntary actions (compare Sin), but also in accordance with the following theories as expressed by Philo:



" God, the all-merciful and gracious, neither delivers a wholly innocent man up to death nor will He suffer a man who committed a deed entirely against his will to go into exile. The ordinance of Ex. xxi. 13 must be interpreted as follows When a murderer has escaped from human justice, God assumes the office of judge, and brings it about that the murderer is killed inadvertently by some one else. God chooses as His executioner a man who has also sinned in some way and is in need of atonement. This homicide is therefore exiled to a city of refuge, where he must remain until the death of the high priest, in expiation of some sins that he must have committed, because an entirely innocent man is never chosen as the instrument of another man's death" ("De Specialibus Legibus," § 20; ed. ii.

319;

compare "De Profugis,"

i

13; ed. Mangey,

i.

555etseg.).

Biblical Asylum law is explained in almost same words as these of Philo in Mekilta (Mishpatim iv.) and the Talmud (Mak. 106). The Talmudic sources agree also with Philo in ex-

The

the

plaining why the death of the high priest releases Philo says that, since the high the exiled homicide. priest

Death

is

was immaculate and

fitting that

sinless, it

he should abhor

(i.e.,

of trie High, not suffer in his presence) those who Priest. had even involuntarily killed a man, since they themselves were not entirely ed. sinless (" De Specialibus Legibus," xxiii., xxi v.

Rabbi gives the following explanation: "The murderer pollutes the land, and drives away the Shekinah but the high priest brings it about that the Shekinah dwells in Israel. It is therefore not fitting that he who pollutes the land should appear before him who brings the Shekinah among

Mangey,

ii.

322).



Num. 160). This explanation, the people however, does not tally with that given by the Halakah, that even the death of a dispensed high priest releases the exile (Mak. ii. 6); and the phrase, frequently recurring in the Talmud, " the death of the " (Sifre,

high priest atones " (Mak. 116), really shows that, according to the opinion current among the Rabbis, the chief factor was the death with its atonin g power. This is easily explainable from the point of view

Atarah

of rabbinical theology, since in general the death of the pious acted as an atonement for Israel (Yer.

Yoma

i. 386 M. K. 28k and the many parallel passages in Bribers' Tan. iii. 66, notes 140-142), and the death of the high priest all the more possesses power of atonement (approximately so, Ibn Ezra on Num. xxxv. 25). Maimonides' explanation (Moreh iii. 40), that the death of the high priest was an event that moved the entire people so much that no thoughts of vengeance could arise in the avenger of blood, conforms as little to the spirit of the early rabbis as to that of the Bible. The tradition found in the Mishnah may be mentioned namely, that the mother of the high priest supplied food and clothing to homicides, in order that they might not wish for the death of her son (Mak. ii. 6). The Talmud thinks (Mak. 11a) that such wishes might have been efficacious against the





high priests, because they had omitted to implore God's mercy for their contemporaries, that no such hapless events might occur.

Compare Avenger

op Blood. Bibliography: The Mishnah, Tosefta and both Talmu dim of the treatise Makkot ii.; Maimonides, Yad, Rozeah, v.-viii.; xviii. 307-312, 565-572 isi. Bloch,Das Mosaisch-Talmudische Polizeirecht, p. 17, Budapest, 1879; Fassel, Das Mosaixch-Rahhinische Strafgesetz, pp. 29-31, Gross-Kanisza, 1870; Ohlenburg, Die Biljlischen Asyle im Talmudisehen Gewande, Munich, 1895; Ritter, Philo und die Halacha, 1879, pp. 29-32; Saalschutz, Das Mosaischc Recht, ii. 535; Salvador, Histoire des Institutions de Moise,

Baeck, in Mnnatsschrift,



p. 13.



Mangey,

Asylum

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

259

j.

L. G.

sr.

ASYLUM CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS. See Charity.

ATAD A place on the eastern side of the Jordan where Jacob's funeral cortege stopped and

Tradition (Gen. for him (Gen. 1. 10, 11). assigns to this circumstance the change in the name of the place to Abel Mizraim, "mourning of Egypt," though in reality the element "Abel"

mourned ib.)

signifies " j.

meadow. G. B. L.

jr.

ATAKI

Town in the province of Bessarabia, Russia, on the right bank of the Dniester, opposite Mohilev. Of the 1,000 families composing its population, 832 are Jews, that have a synagogue and Formerly Ataki was a flourthree prayer-houses. ishing town but the opening of the Novoselitz railroad in 1893 destroyed all its business, while the population was increased by the expulsion of Jews from surrounding villages and their settlement in Those who had the means emigrated to the Ataki. United States of America. During the famine of 1900 the Jewish Relief Committee of St. Petersburg gave assistance to 109 families of Ataki; but a See Besfar greater number remained destitute.



sarabia. Bibliography Entziktopedicheski Slovar, ii.,

1893



Voskhod,

1900,

St.

Petersburg,

No. 27.

H. R.

Biblical Data A wife of Jerahmeel and the mother of Onam (I Chron. ii. 26). If Jerahmeel, as seems probable, is the name of a clan, the expression " wife " might point to an alliance (or in the case of " wives " alliances) with other clans.

ATARAH.—

j.

jr.



C- B. L.