MORE ON DIN RODEF � Reader Simon Montagu e-mails:

I am happy to help you out with some rabbinic sources for "din rodef".

There are really two concepts here which are often confused: "rodef" and "moser".

"Din rodef" appears in Maimonides Mishne Tora Hilchot Rotzeah 1, 6-15. Unfortunately I don't have a printed edition of Mishne Torah with Talmudic sources and cross-references, but the principal source is Mishna Sanhedrin 8, 7.

"Din moser" appears in Mishne Tora Hilchot Hovel Umezik 8, 9-11.

There is an excellent article by Haim Cohen on the subject at http://www.come-and-hear.com/supplement/free-judaism-cohen.html

To read the Hebrew in the first two links you need to have the proper fonts installed. You can find an English translation of Mishnah Sanhedrin 8.7, along with Talmudic commentary thereon, here. Scroll down to the end of the page, "Mishna IX."

UPDATE: Peter S. Zaas e-mails:

A thorough examination of the question of Din Rodef in relation to the Rabin assassination was conducted by Chaim Povarsky in Jewish Law Association Studies IX, ed. E. Goldman:� "The Law of the Pursuer and the Assassination of Prime Minister Rabin."� Needless to say, Povarsky concluded that Prime Minister Rabin was in no sense a rodef.

UPDATE (16 July): More here.