Sunday, August 19, 2018

Breaking the heifer's neck as a ritual reboot of reality

DR. YITZHAQ FEDER: Breaking the Heifer’s Neck: A Bloodless Ritual for an Unsolved Murder (TheTorah.com).
If a corpse is found in a field, and the killer is unknown, Deuteronomy 21 requires the elders of the closest city to break a heifer’s neck by a stream and declare that they did not spill “this blood.” How does this ritual of eglah arufah, “broken-necked heifer,” atone for Israel’s bloodguilt?

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