Eglah Arufah: We Are All Responsible

In the final section of Parshat Shoftim, the Torah describes a strange ceremony called the Eglah Arufah, which was a procedure done if a dead body was found near a city that was presumably murdered, but the murderer was unknown and still at large. In this procedure, the elders of the city nearest to the body bring a young cow to a rough valley incapable of cultivation and near a river, break the neck of the cow, wash their hands over it, and proclaim, “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done. 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.” (Devarim 21:1-9)

On the face of it, this has a flavor of ritual, and the declaration of the sages seems to imply this is some process of atonement akin to a sacrifice, but Jewish tradition has interpreted the rationale and message of this practice in a way that sets a standard for the kind of responsibility communal leaders have in caring for the people under their jurisdiction.

The Mishnah in tractate Sotah interprets their declaration, “Our hands have not spilled this blood, and our eyes have not seen him,” to mean not that they were defending themselves and offering an alibi, because who would actually think it was the elders of the city who murdered this man? Rather, the Mishnah understands their declaration to mean “they did not murder this person by not giving him food for his journey, and as a result he had to try to steal from someone but ended up being killed, and they didn’t see him and let him leave without an escort to ensure safe travels.” (Sotah 45b) In other words, their declaration isn’t that they didn’t murder this person, but that they weren’t negligent in their duties as stewards of the community. They didn’t see someone in need and not help him, either by providing him with food to ensure his needs were met, or an escort to ensure safe travels.

On its own, this is a meaningful lesson for community leaders and the responsibility they have to care for the needs of everyone. However, some Jewish thinkers expand the impact of this practice and who should feel responsible for this incident to include, not just the leaders of the community, but the community itself.

This process, supposedly, was a very public spectacle. In the Guide to the Perplexed, Maimonides wrote that the intent of the Eglah Arufah was to get people talking about the murder and publicize it, such that the murderer would be found (Guide III, Chapter 40) Bible scholar, Jeffrey Tigay, emphasized that the elders’ declaration was not just about absolving them of guilt but, and I quote, “do not let guilt for the blood of the innocent remain among your people Israel.” All of Israel is in need of atonement because everyone is responsible. (The JPS Torah Commentary, Deuteronomy, pg. 193) Abravanel writes that the process of the Eglah Arufah was meant to shock the residents of the city, and Nechama Leibowitz elaborates on this point. She wrote that “We know too well the indifference that prevails among people regarding the miseries of others. Anyone hearing of a murder, either then or now, would shake his head, go his own way, and the world would continue as before…For this reason his creator ordained the carrying out of an elaborate ritual…The Torah desired that the loss of a single human being who is a unique and irreplaceable specimen of his kind be taken to heart by his fellows, should shock their complacency and summon them to severe self-scrutiny.” (Studies in Devarim, Nechama Leibowitz, pg. 204-206)

This reading is important for two reasons. The first is that it does emphasize the same point for us as it does for community leaders — we are all responsible for one another. The second is that in uncovering this sense of personal responsibility couched in a procedure that predominantly involves the leaders of the community, these thinkers highlight a natural human failing that this parsha as a whole is pushing against. That being, the habit people have of assuming the goings on of the world around them aren’t their problem. How often do we hear about problems and assume it isn’t our responsibility — it’s the rabbis’ job or the politicians’ job to solve problems in society, not mine — but that isn’t the case. In this parsha, we are told it is our responsibility to appoint a king (Devarim 17:14-15) and judges who are decent and moral (Devarim 16:18-19), it is our responsibility to offer testimony to crimes committed within our communities (Devarim 19 16-20), and it is everyone’s responsibility to pursue justice, Tzedek, Tzedek Tirdof (Devarim 16:20). Just because we appoint a king or judges to govern us doesn’t mean we no longer have a responsibility to do our part. The spectacle of the Eglah Arufah atones for, but also incriminates all of Israel in the unsolved murder of a fellow Jew, and by extension all wrongdoing that we allow to be perpetrated in our midst.