Hello and blessings, we continue with our regular study, and I find the most interesting part of the book Brit Shalom — the laws of the children of Noah. We are still in the fifth chapter, which deals with the laws of murder. Murder in all its meanings, including things that are branches of murder, and this encompasses everything that harms one person to another.
Here, I am reading in Chapter 5, Halacha 17. This is about the law of the rodef (pursuer). What happens if I see someone chasing me in order to kill me? What should I do? I am in a situation of self-defense. What should I do? Here, it is permitted to save oneself from someone who is chasing after them to kill them by killing the pursuer, if there is no other way to escape from him. But if I can escape by injuring one of the pursuer’s limbs, or something like that, I am not permitted to kill him, but rather to injure one of his limbs.
The principles are simple: we do not kill if we can avoid killing. Even if someone is trying to kill me, I should do it in a way that I save myself by injuring them. For example, by injuring one of the pursuer’s limbs.
Now, this is the situation when I am being pursued. What happens if I see someone chasing after another person? In Halacha 18: "If someone sees a person chasing another person to kill them, and they cannot save the one being chased by injuring one of the pursuer's limbs, they may kill the pursuer." Again, it’s the same principle — I need to save the one being chased. I need to harm the pursuer, but I am not allowed to kill the pursuer if there are simpler ways to prevent the murder. For example, by injuring one of his limbs or by stopping him from proceeding, etc. Or, I can simply call the police, which is also one of the ways to save.
So, here we learn a law that exists both in Jewish law and in the law of the children of Noah — the law of the pursuer chasing after another person to kill them.
