Illustration Credit: Elad Lifshitz, Dov Abramson Studio

In the ancient world, people often took justice into their own hands. For example, if someone got killed—even by accident—their family might try to kill the person who did it. In the Torah, this is called a גּוֹאֵל הַדָּם (go'el ha-dam, blood revenger). But the Torah didn't want people to act this way. In Sefer Devarim (16:18), we are commanded to create a court system, so that laws and justice could protect people. An ir miklat was a kind of protection; it was a place where a person who killed someone by accident could run away and be safe from a go'el ha-dam.

By the time of the Mishnah, this kind of revenge wasn’t normal, so the Rabbis interpreted the ir miklat as גָּלוּת (galut, exile)—a place where a person would have to go as a punishment for killing someone by accident.