Komentarz do Powtórzonego Prawa 21:4

אל נחל איתן UNTO A VALLEY WHICH IS איתן — which is hard; i.e. one that has never been tilled (Sifrei Devarim 207:2; Sotah 45b).

AND THE ELDERS OF THAT CITY SHALL BRING DOWN THE HEIFER UNTO A VALLEY ‘EITHAN’ — “which is ‘hard,’ one that has never been tilled.” This is Rashi’s language. And our Rabbis have said³⁶³Sotah 46b. that the field becomes forbidden from ever being tilled or sown. If so, [the words which is neither tilled nor sown]³⁶⁴In Verse 4 before us. are admonitions that he who sows or cultivates [a rough valley in which a heifer’s neck has been broken] transgresses this negative commandment. The meaning of the verse is thus that the elders should take forth the heifer to [what will forever become] “a rough valley” because it will never again be tilled or sown. The meaning of the expression And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near³⁶⁵Verse 5. is in order to recite Forgive, O Eternal, Thy people Israel, whom Thou hast redeemed etc.³⁶⁶Verse 8. And the purport of the verses is as follows: And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near;³⁶⁵Verse 5. and all the elders of that city, who are nearest unto the slain man, shall wash their hands;³⁶⁷Verse 6. and they shall speak and say: ‘Our hands have not shed this blood.’³⁶⁸Verse 7. The washing of hands is to be done only by some of the [elders] mentioned; so also their speaking [‘Our hands have not shed etc.’] is done by some of them, similar to what is stated, And thou shalt eat before the Eternal thy G-d etc. the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herd etc.³⁶⁹Above, 14:23. [meaning “he who is fit to eat,” for it cannot mean that all are to eat, for the Second Tithe may be eaten by all ritually clean Israelites, while the firstlings are eaten only by the priests; here, too, the washing of hands and speaking are done only by some, but not all, of the elders].
Now on the matter of breaking the heifer’s neck Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra explained³⁶⁸Verse 7. that G-d commanded it to be done for the city which is nearest unto the slain man³⁷⁰Verse 3. because had they not committed a similar sin, it would not have happened that a man be killed near them, and G-d’s thoughts are infinitely profound to us. But the Rabbi [Moshe ben Maimon] said in the Moreh Nebuchim³⁷¹Guide of the Perplexed III, 40. Ramban follows Al Charizi’s translation. In Ibn Tibbon’s text the wording is quite different. that the reason for the breaking of the heifer’s neck is to discover the murderer and to cleanse [the guilt for the innocent] blood. In most cases the murderer comes from the place which is round about him that is slain,³⁷²Verse 2. and when the elders go out and engage in the measuring of the cities, and the elders of the nearest city then bear witness before the Creator that they were not negligent in maintaining and guarding the roads, and that they do not know who killed this man, and as the matter is investigated, the elders gather and bring the heifer, people increasingly speak about it. Then perhaps the matter [of the murderer’s identity] will be solved. The Rabbis have already said³⁷³Yerushalmi Sotah IX, 1. that even if a maidservant comes and declares that a certain person committed the murder, the heifer is not killed [despite the fact that such testimony is not sufficient to convict]. And if the murderer is known and they are silent about him, yet call upon the Creator as their witness that they do not know him, this would be a great wickedness, and whoever knows the slightest thing about it will come and tell. Thus it [the murderer’s identity] will become public knowledge, and he will be killed either through the court, or the king, or the avenger of the blood. This law receives added force because the place in which the heifer’s neck is broken may never be tilled or sown. Those who see [the field] recognize it and discuss it. [Thus far are the words of Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon.] Hence according to this reason there is a benefit in this rite. But the act [i.e., the breaking of the heifer’s neck] is not a pleasing one in itself and it would have been more fitting that it be done in a good field fit for sowing that could be recognized by those who see it, for in “a hard valley,” the reason for not being tilled, will not be obvious [because people will assume that it is left barren due to its stony ground]! In my opinion the reason for it is similar to that of the offerings which are done outside [of the Sanctuary Court], such as the goat sent [to Azazel]³⁷⁴Leviticus 16:22 and 26. and the Red Heifer.³⁷⁵Numbers 19:3. Therefore the Rabbis have counted³⁷⁶This is so counted by Rambam, at the end of Hilchoth Me’ilah. See my Hebrew commentary, p. 440, Note 23. the commandment of breaking the heifer’s neck among the chukim [“the statutes” — the class of commandments for which we do not know the reasons].
Ki Theitzei

אל נחל איתן, where people do not normally walk.

אל נחל איתן, “to a harsh valley.” Our translation is based on Rashi, who translates the word איתן as קשה, hard, tough, unyielding. Nachmanides writes that our sages say that the word signifies that this piece of earth may henceforth never be sown or ploughed to grow anything thereon. If so, the Torah here reveals a new negative commandment that a person using such earth agriculturally would have transgressed by doing so. (Sotah 46)

Hard, which cannot be cultivated. I.e. איתן is an expression of toughness and hardness.

V. 4. איתן כמשמעו קשה ,אל נחל איתן, die Bedeutung von איתן ist: hart, (Sota 46 a) und wird daselbst auf איתן מושבך ושים בסלע קנך. (Bamidbar 24, 21) und שמעו הרים את ריב ד׳ והאיתנים מוסדי ארץ (Micha 6, 2) hingewiesen, und weist באר שבע (daselbst) treffend auf diese Zitate als Beweis dafür hin, dass נחל איתן hier ein harter steiniger Grund ist, und nicht, wie רמב׳׳ם es auffasst, ein starker reißender Bach, sonst hätte das Zitat אתה הובשת נהרות איתן (Ps.74, 16) näher gelegen. Eine andere Ansicht erläutert (daselbst) איתן als alt, urbeständig, wie גוי איתן הוא גוי מעולם הוא (Jirmija 5, 15). Über die Etymologie des Wortes siehe Bereschit S. 552.

אל נחל איתן, “to a virgin piece of land of ancient origin;” we find this same expression also in Psalms 74,15: אתה הובשת נהרות איתן, where the psalmist credits G-d with both drying up rivers, and with providing the driest parts of nature suddenly producing torrents of water. According to Ibn Ezra, איתן means: hard as rock. If we needed proof, perhaps it can be found in verse 6 where the elders suddenly wash their hands in that driest of regions. Where did they take the water from to do so ?.

וערפו AND THEY SHALL STRIKE OFF [THE HEIFER’S] NECK — i.e. one breaks its neck with a hatchet. The Holy One, blessed be He, says, as it were, Let a heifer which is only one year old and which therefore has brought forth no fruits (no offspring) have its neck broken at a spot (the untilled valley) which has not brought forth fruits, to expiate for the murder of him whom they did not permit further to beget children (Sotah 46a).

וערפו, a discreet death, not one drawing attention to itself. The animal does not experience pangs of death, not knowing of its impending fate. Naturally, people knew even less about this impending procedure. This procedure parallels what the murderer had done when he ambushed an unsuspecting victim in a location which was isolated so that the court never found out who the murderer was. Had the court known of the identity of the murderer they would have dealt with him instead of this heifer having to be killed.

By severing the nape with an axe, etc. We derive this by [comparing]עריפה [that is written here to] עריפה [of] the bird sin-offering. Just as there it is at the nape, so too here. The meaning of וערפו is to remove its nape, just as the word תזמור, “you shall [not] prune” (Vayikra 25:3), means to remove a twig (זמורה).

אשר לא יעבד בו ולא יזרע, der Ort ist fortan für jede Bearbeitung untersagt (Sota 46 b).

אשר לא עבד בה, “which has never been made to work;” there had never been water holes in that vicinity from which it could have been irrigated.”

Who was not permitted to bear fruit. You might ask: This implies that if the murdered victim was an old person or a eunuch who does not bear fruit, a decapitated calf would not be brought; but this is not so, because the verse does not differentiate! The answer is that “fruit” [here] means mitzvos [and the verse means] that he was not permitted to fulfill mitzvos, for they too are called “fruit.”

,עורפין אותה בקופיץ מאחוריה, וערפו שם sie wird mit einem starken Messer vom Nacken aus getötet. שם תהא קבורתו ,וערפו שם (Keritot 6 a דש׳׳י daselbst), sie hat dort zu verbleiben, muss dort begraben bleiben, ist אסור בהנאה und bleibt אסור selbst nachdem der Akt der עריפה bereits an ihr vollzogen ist, als Ausnahme von dem sonst geltenden Kanon, dass אין לך דבר אחר שנעשה מצותה ומועלין בה, dass sonst ein jedes Objekt, nachdem seine Mizwabestimmung mit ihm vollzogen worden, seinen Bestimmungscharakter und das daraus resultierende Benutzungsverbot verliert (siehe Wajikra S. 133), und dürfte, ebenso wie wir diese scheinbare Anomalie uns für תרומת הדשן zu erklären versuchten, auch die Bedeutung der עגלה ערופה durch den bleibenden איסור הנאה als auch über den Moment der Vollziehung hinausgehend bezeichnet sein (siehe zu V. 8).

ולא יזרע, “it had never been sown;” nor had the adjoining soil ever been sown.

We have read about similar pieces of land in Leviticus 16,22, ארץ גזרה, “a land completely cut off,” the final resting place of the scapegoat that carries the sins of the Jewish people on the Day of Atonement.

וערפו, “they shall break the neck;” this symbolises what had been the method by which the slain person had died.

את העגלה, “the heifer;” the entire procedure symbolises that just as the slain person had been deprived of what a human being can accomplish in life, so the animal that takes its place is one that had never been allowed to fulfill its function in life. It had died in a state of virginity and had been consigned to virgin earth that also never fulfilled its function, the reason for its existence, to be the source of nourishment for man. The simile of “virginity,” also applies to the people who perform these rites and who profess to be totally innocent, (virginal) of any guilt in the death of the slain person