""Our hands did not shed this blood" (Deuteronomy 21:7). At the end of this week's Torah portion, the Torah addresses the "broken neck of the heifer," which atones for the murder of a victim found dead in the countryside, the killer unknown. The Torah commands the elders of the nearest town to where the body was found to descend into a valley with a year-old heifer and proclaim: "Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it." This act serves both as atonement and as a public announcement of the murder, so that the killer can be identified.
At first glance, what is the connection between "the elders of the city" and homicide? It is well known that "there is no death without sin," so the fact that the person died is undoubtedly due to their sins. The act of homicide was carried out by the murderer, and the murderer must receive the corresponding punishment. But what is the connection between the elders of the city—the local rabbinical court—and homicide?
The section on "the broken heifer" makes it clear that: "All Israel are guarantors for one another." Responsibility for a murder rests not only on the murderer, but on all the inhabitants of the nearest city, and even on the elders of that city, up to and including the Supreme Court itself—the Holy See (as Rashi explains regarding the verse "And your elders shall come forth," the special ones from among your elders; this refers to the Great Sanhedrin).
The elders are the ones who must proclaim loudly, "Our hands did not shed this blood." They are the ones who must show everyone that their hands were clean. They must project the principles and conduct of the Torah to all people in such a way that an event like this simply does not occur. If they did not do so, the responsibility is theirs.
The concept of "shedding of blood" also exists in the spiritual life. To paraphrase the verses of this parashah, when a Jew sins and transgresses, he "sheds," so to speak, the blood and "vitality" of his soul, causing it to descend into impurity and the dimension opposite to Divine holiness. Sometimes we find a Jew who is like a "fallen dead," at a tremendously low spiritual level. Even more so: we find him in the countryside, in the realm under the dominion of "Isav, the man of the field.".
On the one hand, it could be argued that the person is responsible for the state to which they allowed themselves to fall. Who, other than themselves, is to blame for their reaching such a low level? They could leave the spiritual "field" and settle in the "city"—in a structured Jewish life of Torah and mitzvot. If, despite this, they chose to remain in "the field" and "fall into despair," then the entire responsibility rests with them.
That is why the parashah of "the broken heifer" comes and clarifies things: the responsibility for the "fallen" Jew, who is in decline with regard to his Judaism, also rests with the members of the Great Sanhedrin. And as our sages say (Tanah DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 11): "They, the members of the Great Sanhedrin, should have... girded their hips with iron ropes... and wandered through all the cities of Israel... and taught the people. They should have taken care to ensure that this one Jew did not leave the realm of Judaism.".
This is a teaching for every Jew, and especially in the month of Elul, a month of spiritual reflection on all that has been done, said, and thought during the year in relation to the Torah and its mitzvot. We must go out into the "fields," awaken the Jewish people, and remind them what the month of Elul is: a month when the King—the Most High—is in the fields and receives every Jew "with a gracious countenance and shows everyone a smiling face." In this way, we can reach the Iamim Noraím - The dreaded days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, "the city," and to be inscribed and sealed immediately in the Book of the Tzaddikim - complete fairs.
Adapted from www.jabad.org.ar