September 5 • 2019 39
jn

Taking Responsibility
H

ave you ever heard the 
expression, “I wash my hands 
of this matter?” Where did 
this expression originate?
This week we read about 
a seemingly strange com-
mandment called Eglah 
Arufah. (Deuteronomy 21.1-
8). If someone is found slain 
in an open field near a city, 
then the elders and officials 
of the city need to go out to 
the field where the corpse 
had been found. There they 
bury the corpse and mea-
sure the distance between it 
and the two nearest cities, 
identifying the one that is 
closer. The elders of the city 
closer to the corpse offer a 
calf as an atonement for the 
spilled blood. 
The Torah insists that “all the 
elders of the city” attend this cer-
emony, where they all wash their 
hands while reciting, “Our hands 
did not shed this blood, nor did 
our eyes see it done,” inferring, as 
Maimonides puts it, that “just as 
our hands have been made clean by 
this water, so our hands are clean 
from the murder of this corpse.”
 The Talmud raises the perceptive 
question, “Why would we in any 
way assume that the elders would 
spill blood?” The implication was 
not that they literally committed 
the murder; but as the Talmud 
says, “It’
s not that he came to us for 
help and we let him depart the city 

without provisions for the road, 
nor did we see him and let him 
leave without a proper escort.”
Responsibility for murder 
does not fall merely upon the 
one who literally spills the 
blood. Should the deed occur 
in the open field, the entire 
community, and particularly 
its elders, judges and leaders, 
bear the responsibility for the 
murder. 
The Torah teaches us the 
level of responsibility that 
leadership in each communi-
ty should take, making sure 
to care for the well-being of 
the public so that they too 
could, in clear conscience, 
say “our hands are clean.”
 The Lubavitcher Rebbe, 
of righteous memory, said that the 
rule of the Eglah Arufah teaches us 
that we need to take responsibility 
for every Jew. When we see Jewish 
children who are not receiving 
any Jewish education, we can’
t just 
wash our hands and say, “That’
s 
not our problem.” Rather, it is the 
responsibility of each of us.
As we are at the beginning of 
a new school year, let us find a 
Jewish child who is not yet receiv-
ing a Jewish education and help 
him connect to our special heri-
tage. ■

Rabbi Schneor Greenberg is rabbi of the 

Chabad Jewish Center of Commerce, 

rabbi@jewishcommerce.org.

spirit

torah portion

Rabbi Schneor 
Greenberg

Parshat 

Shoftim: 

Deuteronomy 

16:18-21:9; 

Isaiah 

51:12-52:12.

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