📜 Daily Chumash & Rashi – Parshas Shoftim Shevi’i: The Mitzvah of Egla Arufa

Shevi’i

• Offering ultimatum of peace: When you approach a city to wage war against them, you shall offer them the option of surrender and peace. If they agree, they will be subjugated to you for a tax and slavery.
• If they refuse peace: If they should refuse the offer of peace, every male is to be killed and only the women and children and cattle are to remain. However, from the Canaanite nations, not one soul is allowed to survive.
• Not to destroy fruit trees: One may not destroy a fruit tree even when placing siege onto a city, as man is a tree of the field.

 

1. The Mitzvah of Egla Arufa:
   • If a murder victim is found on your land and it is unknown who killed him, the elders and judges must go out and measure to which city it is closest in distance.
   • The calf: Whichever city is closest, the elders of that city must bring a calf who has never done work or been pulled with a yoke, to a valley that has never been cultivated. The back of calf’s neck is to be broken in the valley.
   • All the elders of that city are to wash their hands over the calf in the valley, and state that they were not involved in the murder and did not witness it. They are to pray to Hashem to atone for the spilled blood.

Q&A on Rashi

 

📘 Rashi Q&A — Devarim 20:10–20 & 21:1–9

Devarim 20:10–18 — Laws of War

20:10

Q1. What must Israel do before attacking a city?

1. Offer it peace.

Q2. Which type of war is being discussed?

1. A discretionary (optional) war.

 

20:11

Q3. What if the city accepts peace?

1. Its inhabitants become tributaries and subjects of Israel.

Q4. What obligations must they accept?

1. Paying taxes and subordination.

Q5. If members of the Seven Nations are found there, may they live?

1. Yes, if they accept the terms of peace.

 

20:12

Q6. What if the city refuses peace?

1. Israel must besiege it.

Q7. Why does the Torah mention that the city makes war?

1. To teach that a city refusing peace will eventually fight Israel.

Q8. What does besieging include?

1. Starving, isolating, and weakening the city.

 

20:13

Q9. What happens once Hashem delivers the city into Israel’s hands?

1. The adult males are killed by the sword.

Q10. What condition precedes this victory?

1. Israel must follow Hashem’s instructions.

 

20:14

Q11. Who is spared?

1. The women, children, animals, and property.

Q12. What does “children” include?

1. Even young boys.

Q13. Then who are the “males” killed in the previous verse?

1. Adult males.

20:15–17

Q14. To which cities do these rules apply?

1. Cities outside the seven Canaanite nations.

Q15. What is commanded regarding the cities of the seven nations?

1. No soul is to be left alive.

Q16. Which additional nation is included by “as Hashem commanded”?

1. The Girgashites.

 

20:18

Q17. Why were the Canaanite nations removed?

1. So they would not teach Israel their idolatrous practices.

Q18. What if they repent and convert?

1. They may be accepted.

 

Devarim 20:19–20 — Do Not Destroy Fruit Trees

20:19

Q19. During a siege, what may not be destroyed?

1. Fruit-bearing trees.

Q20. What does “many days” teach?

1. The Sages derive practical laws about siege timing.

Q21. What question does the Torah ask about trees?

1. “Is the tree of the field a man?”

Q22. What does Rashi explain this means?

1. A tree is not an enemy combatant and should not suffer the fate of the city’s inhabitants.

Q23. Why should fruit trees be preserved?

1. Because people can eat from them.

 

20:20

Q24. Which trees may be cut down?

1. Non-fruit-bearing trees.

Q25. For what purpose?

1. To build siege works against the city.

Q26. What does “until its submission” mean?

1. Until the city is subdued.

 

📘 Devarim 21:1–9 — Eglah Arufah (The Decapitated Calf)

21:1–2

Q27. What case introduces this section?

1. A murdered person is found and the killer is unknown.

Q28. Who goes out to investigate?

1. The leading members of the Great Sanhedrin.

Q29. What do they measure?

1. The distance from the corpse to surrounding cities.

Q30. Why?

1. To determine which city is closest.

 

21:3

Q31. What must the nearest city provide?

1. A calf that has never worked and never worn a yoke.

 

21:4

Q32. Where is the calf taken?

1. To a hard, uncultivated valley.

Q33. What is done there?

1. The calf’s neck is broken from behind.

Q34. Why specifically such a calf and such a place?

1. Symbolically, a young unproductive calf in an unproductive place atones for a life whose future productivity was cut short.

 

21:5

Q35. Why do the priests participate?

1. Because they are chosen to serve Hashem and to bless Israel.

Q36. What additional authority do they possess?

1. Matters of judgment and ritual afflictions are decided through them.

 

21:6–7

Q37. What do the elders do?

1. Wash their hands over the decapitated calf.

Q38. What declaration do they make?

1. “Our hands did not shed this blood.”

Q39. Does this mean they are suspected of murder?

1. No.

Q40. What does it really mean?

1. They did not allow the victim to leave their city without food or escort.

 

21:8

Q41. What prayer is offered?

1. A plea for atonement on behalf of Israel.

Q42. Why mention that Hashem redeemed Israel?

1. To invoke Divine mercy upon His redeemed people.

Q43. What result follows?

1. The bloodguilt is atoned for.

 

21:9

Q44. What if the murderer is later discovered?

1. He must still be executed.

Q45. What does this teach about the eglah arufah ceremony?

1. It provides communal atonement but does not replace justice against the murderer.

Q46. What is considered “proper in the eyes of Hashem”?

1. Bringing the actual murderer to justice.