And you shall abolish the shedding of innocent blood from among you, for you shall do what is proper in the eyes of the Lord. If you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord, your God, will deliver him into your hands, and you take his captives. The end of Parshas Shoftim speaks about the law of when finding a dead person lying in a field and the killer is not known, the elders of the city closest to the scene, have to bring a calf to attone for their sins. The Torah continues then to the Parsha of going to war. To understand the connection of these verses we must evaluate one common aspect that is by both verses. Rashi asks on the verse: Our hands did not shed this blood: But would it enter one’s mind that the elders of the court are murderers? Rather, they declare: We ourselves did not see him and let him depart without food or escort which would have indirectly caused his death, leaving this man to the elements and to robbers. However other commentaries answer that the sages are to blame since they didn’t rebuke the people to act in accordance of the Torah. The question is: Why didn't they rebuke? The answer of the sages were that the people would not have listened to their rebuke, therefore they didn’t say anything. However, Hashem is teaching the sages that they were wrong. There is the Mitzvah of rebuking, ( :L ¤zi ¦n£r z¤` ©gi ¦k eY ©g¥k edz"h y"h trehu) you shall surely rebuke your neighbour, and it is not up to them if they listen or not.
The verse of Ki Seitze “if you go out to war against your enemies,” many commentaries interpret this as the war that a person has to fight his evil inclination the Yetzer Harah who is your enemy. He entices to sin. Hashem commands us to fight and go to war with the Yetzer Harah. Yet one can ask how is it possible for a human being to fight an angel? Hashem answers: d− ̈n ̈g §l ¦O©l `¬¥v ¥z i«¦M You begin the war and be determined to do Teshuva and do Mitzvohs. Once you actually start the war, Hashem says, L−¤c ̈i §A Li¤w l¡` 'd eºp ̈z§pE I will finish it for you. The Gemarra Kiddushin 30b discusses the rivalry of the Yetzer Harah and the person: Rabbi Shimon ben Levi says: A person’s evil inclination overpowers him every day, and seeks to kill him, as it is stated: “The wicked watches the righteous and seeks to slay him” (Psalms 37:32). mi ¦w l¡`" :x ©n¡`¤P¤W , el lek ̈i oi ¥` ex§f er `Ed KEx ̈A W ec ̈T©d `¥l ̈n §l ¦`§e ec ̈i §a EP¤a§f©r©i ` l / And if not for the fact that the Holy One, Blessed be He, assists each person in battling his evil inclination, he could not overcome it, as it is stated: “The Lord will not leave him in his hand” (Psalms 37:33).
Hence, we find common ground in these Parshas. The sages and the person are not to dwell on the outcome. The sages have the duty to rebuke, and the person has the duty to go to war. The outcome is in the hands of Hashem. Another point to ponder: The Yetzer Harah doesn’t begin to entice a person with big sins at the beggining. It is as said before “The wicked watches the righteous and seeks to slay him” (Psalms 37:32). He looks for ways to catch a person with very minor transgression, not to follow a custom or not to listen to your leader. Then he steps up to bigger offenses and eventually catches the person and entices to do transgress big sins, This is what Rabbi Shimon ben Levi says: A person’s evil inclination “overpowers him” every day, The word in Hebrew is ex §v¦i m ei l>k §A ei ̈l ̈r x¥A©B §z ¦n m ̈c ̈` l¤W which means it gets stronger every day. Alluding to the fact that it begins very slow and gradually if one doesn’t fight back it ends up that the Yetzer Harah will be victorious.
The same idea is by the sages who had to bring the calf to attone for the city. This act of killing a person didn’t begin then. If the sages would have given rebuke all along and teaching the people, this murder would never have happened. This is the connection of both Parshas.
A similarity to this insight. We find in Gemarra Makos 10a When a person kills someone unintentional he must run to exile, and stay there until high priest dies. A certain elder said: I heard in the lecture delivered by Rava that the High Priests share the blame, as they should have pleaded for mercy for their generation and they did not plead. Consequently, they required the exiles to pray on their own behalf. The Gemara illustrates the concept of the responsibility held by the spiritual leadership: This is like in this incident where a certain man was eaten by a lion at a distance of three Amos, parasangs from the place of residence of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, and Eliyahu Hanavi did not speak with him for three days because of his failure to pray that an incident of this kind would not transpire in his place of residence. This can be a reason for the sages to bring the calf.
(Yehuda Z. Klitnick)
