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The severity of the prohibition of murder is clear. A murderer transgresses all the mitzvot – those relating to God and those relating to people. Murder destroys everything good the victims could have experienced had they lived longer. Additionally, the murderer sins against God. God gifted the victim with life, and the murderer took it away. The entire human race originated with Adam, which shows us that a single individual can contain an entire world within themselves. In the words of the Sages, “This is why God created only one person – to teach us that anyone who destroys one life is considered to have destroyed an entire world, and anyone who saves one life is considered to have saved an entire world” (Mishna Sanhedrin 4:5).
The scope of the prohibition is broad. It makes no difference whether the victim is young or old, sick or healthy. Every minute of life has infinite value, so one who takes any life transgresses the prohibition of murder.
