NUM423 The simple reading of this source is that the City of Refuge is just that, a safe haven for one who kills unintentionally. The source Numbers places a statute of limitations on the killer’s stay there, tying it to the death of the High Priest. It is thus not clear if, according to Numbers, staying in the City of Fefuge is a matter of protecting the unintentional killer, equivalent to a prison term, or a matter of atonement, as the Rabbis of the Talmud would seem to understand it. If so, this would be the closest the Jewish tradition comes to the notion of a jail term. (By Uzi Weingarten and the Editors)