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Candle lighting time for Friday, August 13, 7:45
Triennial Cycle III: Deut. 19:14-21:9
Humash Etz Hayim, page 1099
Haftarah: Isaiah 51:12-52:12, p. 1107
- (19:14) The prohibition of removing a landmark.
- (19:15-21) Deliberately false witnesses: their punishment is whatever their false testimony would have brought upon their intended victim.
- (20:1-20) Laws for the conduct of war.
- (21:1-9) The laws of the beheaded heifer which were practiced if murdered person was found in the open country between settlements.
If a corpse is found in the countryside, then the elders of the town decapitate a heifer, and declare:] “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.” (Deut. 21:7-8)
A. Now would it enter our minds to assume that the elders of a bet din (rabbinic court) are shedders of blood? What, then, is the intent of Our hands did not shed this blood? He [the slain one] was not “in our hands,” and dismissed without a meal; and we did not see him [corresponding to nor did our eyes see it done] and let him go without an escort. Whereupon Rabbi Yehoshuaben Levi derived: The beheaded heifer ritual is brought about only because of the “narrow eyed” [i.e., the inhospitable]. (Talmud Tractate Sotah 48b)
B. The rabbis of here [EretzYisrael] took the text to refer to the murderer. That no one came within our jurisdiction whom we discharged and failed to put to death, that we overlooked him and failed to bring him to justice. The Rabbis of there [Babylonia] took the text to refer to the victim. (Jerusalem Talmud, Sotah 9:6)
C. Inevitably, war entails the loss of many lives. Such bloodshed often leads to insensitivity to the value of human life. This is the reason for the placement of parashateglaarufa within the laws of war. A single corpse lies solitary in a field. The corpse is anonymous, the murderer is unknown, there are no known relatives or friends of the victim. Almost certainly, the solitary wanderer came from the lower strata of society. According to the SfatEmet, it is not even known whether the corpse is that of a Jew or a non-Jew. Despite all these facts, the Torah mandates the whole procedure of the “eglaarufa”—where the most senior and prominent members of the city closest to the corpse profess their innocence and pray for atonement.
In contrast to the tendency in wartime to denigrate the value of the individual and of human life in general, the parasha of eglaarufa stands out to remind us of the exceptional value that Judaism places upon human life, and of the significance of each individual in the eyes of the Lord. (Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein)
D. The first lesson of this law is that leaders are entrusted with setting the moral tone of a society. Thus, they can be held responsible for a social climate in which a person can go unnoticed, in which no one cries out “Halt!” to the murderer or “Look out!” to the victim. Respected elders might not sully their hands with murder. But in any culture, they may be guilty of caring more for property or power than people. They are guilty unless they can swear that they tried their best to create a humane society, one that protects the weak, the outsider.
The law of the calf has a second lesson: A leader may not be a bystander. And there is no dispensation for “disaster fatigue,” or allowance for valuing one human life less than another. Says the Torah: This victim, a stranger without family or friends—even from him you may not distance yourself. (Blu Greenberg)
Summer Talmud Class Cancelled : Classes will resume Friday August 27, 8:30 am.
Jr. Kadima: Golfland and Waterslides Event – August 15 Raging Waters Event (SJ) – August 22
Sr. Kadima: