EXOD605 A willful murder was punished by the courts. An accidental killer, however, was not deemed legally guilty of any crime. Yet there was a common perception of a moral guilt attached to a person who causes another man's death, even if he was not negligent in the legal sense of the word. This view was supported by the biblical law of the goring ox. An ox which killed a human being must be destroyed [this verse]. The destruction of the ox is justified by the need to prevent future mishaps. However, the law has an additional proviso. The meat of the ox is unfit for human consumption, even if the animal was ritually slaughtered. Rabbi Aaron of Barcelona (13th cent.) explained the prohibition on moral grounds. It is a pointed lesson, he alleged, that an animal which caused a human death is an odious creature, repugnant to all men. This will teach us to be extremely careful not to be the cause of the loss of a life, even in the absence of negligence (Chinuch 52).