However, this is only so when the water that reached the victim fell on him immediately after the barrier was breached. If some time lapsed before the water reached the victim, it is no longer considered the perpetrator's primary force, and he is not liable.
As a general principle, one is liable for murder only if it was caused by his direct force, not by any removed or consequential action, and of course if he has been properly warned a short while before the action.
Art: William Payne - Landscape with a waterfall
3 comments:
Yossi said:
Mark
As far as I understand, he is liable, just not for capital murder. See Rambam hilchos Rotzeach.
Yossi
"Liable" means that the court metes out a punishment for him. However, Rambam Hilchot Rotzeach, Perek 3 Halacha 10 says that "The One Who avenges blood with require it from him" - but earthly court does not have the authority to kill him.
In that sense he is not liable. If "he is liable, just not for capital murder," then for what is he liable? But the truth is that he is not liable in early court for anything, though liable in Heavenly Court.
No doubt that it is prohibited to kill, as derived from "don't kill". This concept of "not liable but prohibited" is absent in secular jurisdiction: there, if there is no punishment in the court, then one is not liable, and it is not prohibited.
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