(1) If, in the land that the LORD your God is assigning you to possess, someone slain is found lying in the open, the identity of the slayer not being known, (2) your elders and magistrates shall go out and measure the distances from the corpse to the nearby towns. (3) The elders of the town nearest to the corpse shall then take a heifer which has never been worked, which has never pulled in a yoke; (4) and the elders of that town shall bring the heifer down to an everflowing wadi, which is not tilled or sown. There, in the wadi, they shall break the heifer’s neck. (5) The priests, sons of Levi, shall come forward; for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister to Him and to pronounce blessing in the name of the LORD, and every lawsuit and case of assault is subject to their ruling. (6) Then all the elders of the town nearest to the corpse shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the wadi. (7) And they shall make this declaration: “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done. (8) Absolve, O LORD, Your people Israel whom You redeemed, and do not let guilt for the blood of the innocent remain among Your people Israel.” And they will be absolved of bloodguilt. (9) Thus you will remove from your midst guilt for the blood of the innocent, for you will be doing what is right in the sight of the LORD.
Why is this ritual is mentioned here in the middle of Dinei Milchama? What does this have to do with the ethics of war? It seems out of place!
(ב) וערפו. קוֹצֵץ עָרְפָּהּ בְּקוֹפִיץ; אָמַר הַקָּבָּ"ה תָּבֹא עֶגְלָה בַת שְׁנָתָהּ שֶׁלֹּא עָשְׂתָה פֵרוֹת וְתֵעָרֵף בְּמָקוֹם שֶׁאֵינוֹ עוֹשֶׂה פֵרוֹת, לְכַפֵּר עַל הֲרִיגָתוֹ שֶׁל זֶה שֶׁלֹּא הִנִּיחוּהוּ לַעֲשׂוֹת פֵּרוֹת (סוטה מ"ו):
(2) וערפו AND THEY SHALL STRIKE OFF [THE HEIFER’S] NECK — i.e. one breaks its neck with a hatchet. The Holy One, blessed be He, says, as it were, Let a heifer which is only one year old and which therefore has brought forth no fruits (no offspring) have its neck broken at a spot (the untilled valley) which has not brought forth fruits, to expiate for the murder of him whom they did not permit further to beget children (Sotah 46a).
(א) כי ימצא חלל. כאשר הזכיר המלחמה על האויב אמר ואם אדם ילחם עם אחד ונמצא חלל בארץ ישראל ולא נודע מי הכהו:
(1) If a corpse is found After mentioning the case of war against our enemies, Scripture now discusses the case when a man wages war against his fellow man, and a corpse is found in the land of Israel, the murderer of which is unknown.
(ח) כפר לעמך כפר אתה בדם שופכו. כאמרם ז''ל (סנהדרין) מי שנתחייב הריגה לסטים באים עליו:
(8) כפר לעמך, Please Lord, grant atonement to Your people, on behalf of the one who has spilled the blood. This is a veiled request to bring the murderer to justice as it is not given to man to do this. Compare Ketuvot 30 “if someone is guilty of judicial execution (and human justice did not reach him) he will either be killed by the secular authorities (for something else he is accused of) or terrorists will attack him.”
“Its unusual placement provides a message connected to the often-profuse bloodshed of war. It proclaims that wars may occur that will entail killing, perhaps much killing, but the Israelites must be careful not to become jaded by such occurrences, indifferent to the supreme value of each individual human life.”
Why does the Torah keep reiterating that the elders did not kill? Why should the elders ask for forgiveness if they didn’t do anything?
(א) ידינו לא שפכה. וְכִי עָלְתָה עַל לֵב שֶׁזִּקְנֵי בֵית דִּין שׁוֹפְכֵי דָמִים הֵם? אֶלָּא לֹא רְאִינוּהוּ וּפְטַרְנוּהוּ בְּלֹא מְזוֹנוֹת וּבְלֹא לְוָיָה (סוטה מ"ה). הַכֹּהֲנִים אוֹמְרִים כפר לעמך ישראל:
(1) ידינו לא שפכה [AND THEY SHALL ANSWER AND SAY,] OUR HANDS HAVE NOT SHED [THIS BLOOD] — But would it enter anyone’s mind that the elders of the court are suspect of blood-shedding?! But the meaning of the declaration is: We never saw him and knowingly let him depart without food or escort (if we had seen him we would not have let him depart without these) (Sifrei Devarim 210:2; Sotah 45b). The priests thereupon say (next verse): כפר לעמך ישראל FORGIVE UNTO THY PEOPLE ISRAEL.
(ז) ועינינו לא ראו. ויתכן שהשם צוה לעשות כן העיר הקרובה כי לולי שעשו עבירה כדומה לה לא נזדמן להם שיהרג אדם קרוב מהם ומחשבות השם עמקו וגבהו לאין קץ אצלנו:
(ח) כפר לעמך. ששגגו ולא שמרו הדרכים המסוכנים:
(7) and our eyes did not see The reason God commanded the nearest city to perform this ritual is probably that, had they not done a corresponding sin, it would not have happened that a man close to them was murdered. But the thoughts of God, next to our own, are limitlessly deep and profound.
(8) forgive your people For we were negligent, and we did not guard the dangerous highways.
(א) ידינו לא שפכה שלא הנחנו שום נודע לרוצח בארץ:
(ב) ועיננו לא ראו שלא היה זה במקום רואים שאם היו שם רואים היו מתקוממים ומגידים:
(א) כפר לעמך כפר אתה בדם שופכו. כאמרם ז''ל (סנהדרין) מי שנתחייב הריגה לסטים באים עליו:
(1) ידינו לא שפכו את הדם הזה, we have not left a stone unturned in (making public) locating the murderer in the land.
(2) ועינינו לא ראו, we are certain that the murderer did not commit this act where he could be seen. Had he been seen, he would have been challenged and prevented from committing the deed. At the very least, such witnesses would have come forward.
(1) כפר לעמך, Please Lord, grant atonement to Your people, on behalf of the one who has spilled the blood. This is a veiled request to bring the murderer to justice as it is not given to man to do this. Compare Ketuvot 30 “if someone is guilty of judicial execution (and human justice did not reach him) he will either be killed by the secular authorities (for something else he is accused of) or terrorists will attack him.”
The Mishnah (m. Sotah 9:6), in commenting on this declaration, points out that of course there is no suspicion that the elders had shed the blood. It explains the ritual to mean that there is the issue of indirect causation. The elders are required to answer for a failure of leadership.