A Thought on Parshas Shoftim

"...kaper l'amcha..." "...atone for Your people..." (21:8) A whole lot of people turn out for the rare ritual of Egla Arufa. A corpse has been found on the highway. It cannot be identified. A murder has occurred, horribly, and the community gets involved. The kohanim show up. The elders and justices show up. Surveyors and land experts arrive. Cattle farmers gather. Townsfolk congregate and the ritual is enacted. The leaders proclaim their anguish over the tragic death, and a plea to the Divine is made, each person declaring their innocence and wish that they might have prevented that crime. The next verse tells us that this is the way to rid the community of the taint of spilt innocent blood, by doing ha'yashar -only the right thing - namely, implementing the above rite. The Bechor Shor sees in the Egla Arufa event a practical, as well as a moral, instruction: such an event gets people talking. Word circulates: someone was murdered. Surrounding towns are devastated upon hearing this news. Moreover, members of Sanhedrin come to the area, and a red heifer is killed and buried. This is strange! People talk some more, and it occurs to some of those people as they return to their homes that they should check in at the homes of other persons who had a family member vanish, or leave and not return. Perhaps there is an aguna, a forlorn woman whose husband deserted her, or seemed to. Perhaps there are children whose parent abandoned them, or seemed to. Perhaps there has even been a suspicious character in the region, who gives off vibrations of danger which scare people. As people begin to wonder and inquire as to the identity of the dead person, hope arises. Perhaps that aguna can inspect the remains, and might discover that it was her lost husband. While hardly a comfort, she now knows that she is free of the chains of lifelong doubt and limitation. Those children, while not cheered to learn of the fate of their parent, may now be helped with halachic access to their inheritance and feel provided for and taken care of. And perhaps that mysterious stranger was the murderer, and an investigation can be undertaken. What is yashar and just, according to the Bechor Shor, is that - especially in times of crisis - the Jewish community pulls together. We network. And that is what atones for our wayward straying and our misdeeds. May Chodesh Elul bring us together without crisis. Wishing us all a good Shabbos. D Fox