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As we have learned, the Torah requires that someone who kills accidentally must exile himself to an ir miklat – a City of Refuge. What was the procedure for being accepted into an ir miklat? Where were these cities?
As the Rambam explains the Mishna on our daf, everyone who killed would run to one of these cities in order to protect himself from revenge at the hands of the go’el ha-dam – the relative who serves as a “blood avenger.” The perpetrator would be taken to trial and would either be found guilty and put to death, would be found innocent and set free, or declared an accidental killer and returned to the ir miklat in the company of two guards who would be charged with protecting him from the go’el ha-dam.
According to the Mishna, the biblical commandment to establish six cities of refuge (see Bamidbar 35:13-14) requiring three on each side of the Jordan River, was first fulfilled by Moshe (see Devarim 4:41) on the eastern side of the river.