A person strikes another with a tiny iron needle, and the victim dies. Is the striker liable for murder?
Halacha 4 rules that the Torah set no minimum size for iron weapons: even a needle, spit, or knife — if it has a point — constitutes a lethal iron implement.
Question 2
A killer pushes a victim into a river, but there is a ladder in the water by which the victim could climb out. The victim drowns anyway. What is the ruling?
Halacha 9 rules that when a victim can ascend from water or fire, the pusher is not liable for court execution. If the pusher later removes the ladder himself, he is still exempt from the court (though God will seek him out).
Question 3
A person builds an airtight marble enclosure around a colleague and lights a candle inside, causing death from lack of air. What is the ruling?
Halacha 9 explicitly lists lighting a candle in a sealed marble room among acts treated as direct strangulation, making the perpetrator liable for execution.
Question 4
A stone is thrown upward, veers sideways, and kills a passerby. Who is liable?
Halacha 13 rules that throwing a stone upward and having it deflect still makes the thrower liable, since the killing force traces back to him.
Question 5
A person throws a stone against a wall and it rebounds, killing someone. Is the thrower liable?
Halacha 12 rules that the thrower of a stone that rebounds and kills is liable for court execution because the stone moved through the power he generated.