The ninth and final chapter of our massekhet begins on daf TB Sotah 44b. This chapter’s main concern is the ritual of the eigel arufa (עֶגְלָה עֲרוּפָה). The first nine verses of chapter 21 in the book of Deuteronomy describe this ritual.
“If, in the
land that your God YHVH is assigning you to possess, someone slain is found
lying in the open, the identity of the slayer not being known, your elders and
magistrates shall go out and measure the distances from the corpse to the
nearby towns. 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; 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.
“The
priests, sons of Levi, shall come forward; for your God YHVH has chosen them
for divine service and to pronounce blessing in the name of YHVH, and every
lawsuit and case of assault is subject to their ruling. Then all the elders of
the town nearest to the corpse shall wash their hands over the heifer whose
neck was broken (עֶגְלָה עֲרוּפָה) in the wadi. And they shall make this
declaration: “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done. Absolve,
YHVH, 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.
“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 YHVH.”
Our Gemara goes into great detail how this ritual is performed. Members of the Sanhedrin from Jerusalem go to the scene of the crime and measures which city is the closest. Then the elders must make the above declaration in Hebrew. This Hebrew declaration is the reason this chapter is appended to massekhet Sotah. It is listed in the previous chapter as one of the declarations recited in Hebrew. We have to ask ourselves though why is this ritual so important.
The shedding of innocent blood is one of the greatest sins conceivable in the Torah. God’s justice requires that the murderer be tried in a court of justice so the guilt of the blood of the innocent be removed from the land. If this innocent blood isn’t removed, the land itself becomes polluted. Back in the Noah story we learn what happened when innocent blood isn’t removed.
According to
the Torah, there were no laws nor courts of justice from the time of Adam to
Noah. God tells Noah the reason why he is going to destroy the world. “God said
to Noah, “I have decided to put an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled
with lawlessness because of them: I am about to destroy them with the earth.”
(Gen. 6:13) With no restraints, this lawlessness led to an abundance of murder
of innocent blood. There is no way to remove this blood guilt. It just built up
and built up until God could no longer tolerate this pollution. His method of
bringing a flood to destroy the world washed away all the blood guilt that had
piled up. In other words, God cleaned up the mess humans made.
One of the
seven laws God gave Noah was the prohibition of murder and its punishment to
ensure that this blood guilt would never reach such a critical point again that
will force God’s hand to wash it away again. “But for your own life-blood I
will require a reckoning: I will require it of every beast; of humankind, too,
will I require a reckoning for human life, of everyone for each other!
“Whoever
sheds human blood,
By human [hands] shall that one’s blood be shed;
For in the image of God
Was humankind made.” (Gen. 9:5-6)
In the case
of a murder where the murder was unknown, the Torah provides a method to remove
the blood guilt and cleanse the land of this pollutant.
In American
law we have the concept of accomplices after the fact. “An accessory-after-the-fact is someone who
assists 1) someone who has committed a crime, 2) after the person has committed
the crime, 3) with knowledge that the person committed the crime, and 4) with
the intent to help the person avoid arrest or punishment.” (https://criminal.altmanllp.com/accessory-before-after-the-fact.html#:~:text=An%20accessory%20before%20the%20fact%20is%20defined%20as%20someone%20who,the%20crimes%20suggest%2C%20one%20is)
Murder is such
a great sin that the Torah creates a new category of accomplices before the
fact. The elders have to say: : “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our
eyes see it done….” Who would have thought for a moment that these elders
committed this murder? Would you believe that I or your Rabbi could commit such
a heinous act?! The answer has to be absolutely not. This thought would
probably never ever enter your mind. The Gemara raises this question and then
answers why the elders had to announce they were not accomplices before the
act. “The Elders of that city would then wash their hands in water in
the place of the breaking of the neck of the heifer, and they would recite:
“Our hands did not spill this blood, nor did our eyes see” (Deuteronomy
21:7). The mishna explains: But did it enter our minds that the Elders of
the court are spillers of blood, that they must make such a declaration? Rather,
they mean to declare that the victim did not come to us and then we
let him take his leave without food, and we did not see him and then leave
him alone to depart without accompaniment. They therefore attest
that they took care of all his needs and are not responsible for his death even
indirectly.” (46a, Sefaria.org translation)
The ritual
of the eigel arufa challenges us not
to be accomplices before the fact when dealing with our own poor and the masses
of refugees seeking a better life due to war and crime in their home country or
do we provide them with food, shelter, and medicine so they can seek asylum in
our country.
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