Torah Portion: Mishpatim

If one person strikes another and [the victim] dies, [the murderer] must be put to death (Shemos 21:12).

It is a positive commandment to execute by strangulation those who violate certain commandments of the Torah—as it is written, If one person strikes another and [the victim] dies, [the murderer] must be put to death (Shemos 21:12).Every death sentence which is not specified in the Torah refers to strangulation. The case of this verse, which is that of a murderer, is one of those instances. {Ed. Note: The Mishneh LaMelech and other commentators point out that there is a copyist error here, for the death penalty of a murder is beheading, not strangulation.}

The root reason of this commandment is obvious to all: for the King maintains the land through justice (Mishlei 29:4); if not for the fear of justice people would murder each other. God therefore commanded us to execute the murderer.

This commandment only applies in the Land of Israel, for capital crimes are judged only in the Land of Israel. One who is in position to conduct justice and does not do so, violates this positive commandment, and his penalty is great, for if not for the fear of the law, one person would swallow the other alive.