Комментарий к Дварим 21:5

לשרתו ולברך, the (Temple) service of the priests is instrumental in attaining expiation for the innocent blood spilled, and in securing blessing for the land.

ונגשו הכהנים בני לוי וענו ואמרו כפר לעמך ישראל, in order to facilitate our understanding of these 4 verses the author summarises the principal parts of the verses in question without including what is only in parenthesis.

ונגשו הכהנים, “The priests will draw near, etc.” they do so in order to intone the prayer asking for atonement, written down in verse 8. The meaning of the whole verse is as follows: the priests, and all the elders of the nation, as well as all the people residing within a narrow radius from where this murder had occurred, will wash their hands and intone the prescribed formula, i.e. some of the assembled will wash the hands of the others. Concerning the procedure of killing that heifer, Ibn Ezra writes that G’d imposed the duty to perform these rites on the city closest to where the murdered person had been found, for if people in that city had been free from all other sins as well, G’d would not have embarrassed them by a murder having been committed in their vicinity. Maimonides writes in his Moreh Nevuchim 3,40 that the reason for the procedure is to assist in apprehending the killer, who most likely resides in that vicinity. The publicity that the killing of the heifer in such circumstances attracts, as well as the fact that the reputation of the city near which it occurs suffers a decline of its good image, is hoped to involve more people in the active search for the perpetrator of this crime. Anyone who can make a contribution to finding out who the guilty party was will be liable to do so. Once the guilty party has been found out and located and convicted of whatever penalty is appropriate, exile or death, this will serve as a deterrent to others who had planned to commit a similar crime. The event will long be remembered as the piece of earth on which the heifer has been killed is no longer allowed to be farmed and people will want to know the reason why this is so. Nachmanides writes that while it is true that the procedure prescribed by the Torah will help to find this murderer and will possibly frighten off future murderers, but what did it do to reconcile G’d with the fact that innocent blood was spilled in the Holy Land? In order to achieve maximum effect this procedure should have been performed on a field that is under cultivation, not one that had never been under cultivation, and therefore is not often visited by people. Nachmanides therefore feels that this procedure has more in common with that of the scapegoat and the burning of the red heifer for the sake of getting its ash, which when mixed with spring water, purifies people who had become ritually impure through contact with a dead body or being under the same roof with such a body. These three procedures have one thing in common; neither one of them is performed on sacred ground. They therefore fall under the heading of חוק, decree, legislation the reason for which G’d has not seen fit to share with us.