The Weekly Daf #79 
Makkos 9-15
Week of 13-19 Av 5755 / 9-15 August 1995
By Rabbi Mendel Weinbach, Dean, Ohr Somayach Institutions  
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                        The  Range of Responsibility

An accidental murderer is required to go into exile in one of the cities of 
refuge where he must remain until the death of the Kohen Gadol.  The mother 
of the Kohen Gadol therefore used to supply these exiles with food and 
clothes so that they would pray for her son to live.

The implication is that without the prayer of these exiles the Kohen Gadol 
was in danger of dying because of them.  But why is he to blame for the 
accidental taking of life which brought about their exile?

"Because," explained one older Sage who had heard a shiur in the Yeshiva of 
the Sage Rava, "he should have prayed for the security of his generation 
and he failed to do so."

An illustration of this concept of a tzadik's responsibility for the entire 
community was the reaction of the Prophet Eliyahu to a lion killing a man 
some twelve kilometers from where Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi lived.  Although 
this angelic personality daily visited Rabbi Yehoshua, he refused to speak 
with him for three days because he held the Sage indirectly responsible for 
the death in his vicinity which his prayers might have prevented.
                                                                 Makkos 11a

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                             Gates of Jerusalem

    A song of degrees to David.  I rejoiced when they said to me "We will
    go to the house of Hashem."  Our feet did stand in the gates of
    Jerusalem.  (Tehillim 122)


Two comments on the supreme value of Torah study are offered by Rabbi 
Yehoshua ben Levi on these passages:

David said to Hashem: I heard people say "When will this old king die so
                      that his son Shlomo will build the Beis Hamikdash and
                      enable us to make our pilgrimage to the house of
                      Hashem on the Festivals" -- and I rejoiced.
Hashem replied:       One day of your Torah study is worth more to Me than
                      a thousand sacrifices which Shlomo will offer upon
                      the altar.
Said David:	          Who made it possible that our feet did stand their
                      ground successfully in war -- the Gates of Jerusalem
                      where Torah was studied.
                                                                  Makkos 10
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