In the end of Parashat Shoftim, the Torah tells us the din of eglah arufah. And this is the beginning of קפיטל כ״א, where the pasuk says, כי ימצא חלל באדמה אשר ה׳ אלקיך נתן לך לרשתה נפל בשדה, if you will find a dead body in the ground that ה׳ אלקיך gave you as an inheritance, and you will find him נפל בשדה, that he fell in the field, and you לא נודע מי הכהו, you don't know who hit him, you don't know who killed him, so the pasuk continues, ויצאו זקניך ושפטיך ומדדו אל הערים אשר סביבת החלל. The zekanim, meaning the Sanhedrin Gedolah, as Rashi explains, have to come out and they have to measure from the body to all the cities surrounding the body. And the closest city, so the zekanim of that city have to bring an eglah, they have to bring a calf, and they bring it down, as the pasuk says, to נחל איתן אשר לא יעבד בו ולא יזרע, to a place that the ground wasn't worked with and was never planted, וערפו שם את העגלה, and there they have to chop off the head of the eglah, of this calf. And then the pasuk continues that the zekanim have to come over, wash their hands, and they have to say, ידינו לא שפכו את הדם הזה, our hands did not spill this blood, ועינינו לא ראו, and our eyes didn't see. And they continue and they say, כפר לעמך ישראל אשר פדית ה׳, forgive your nation Yisrael that you had redeemed, ואל תתן דם נקי בקרב עמך ישראל ונכפר להם הדם, etc., etc. This is the din of eglah arufah. Now, even though this din of eglah arufah is not done now, nevertheless, the ruchniyusdike, the spiritual meaning behind the din of eglah arufah could apply even nowadays, applies always. As we know that every din in the Torah, in addition to its simple meaning and the application of the din in simple terms, bagashmiyut, practically speaking, there is also the ruchniyusdike, spiritual meaning of the mitzvah. And therefore, even those mitzvot that don't apply nowadays, bizman hazeh, they would only apply in the time of the Beit Hamikdash, only apply in certain places, etc., etc., nevertheless, their spiritual meaning could apply in every place. Since we know that the Torah is milashon hora'ah, the word Torah itself comes from the word hora'ah, as it says in Zohar and also brought down in the Radak, that the word Torah comes from the word הוראה, a lesson, that means that everything in the Torah is a lesson. And this applies not only to the dinim that actually apply to the people, that's certainly a lesson, the Torah tells us what to do, but even the stories of the Torah, which seems to be only a story, nevertheless, the Torah is not chas veshalom a storybook, but every story in the Torah is a lesson for a רוחניותדיקע, spiritual avodat Hashem. And so too these dinim that don't apply בזמן הזה, they only apply בזמן בית המקדש קיים or whatever reason it doesn't apply, nevertheless, it is still a הוראה because there is a spiritual explanation to that halachah. And the same is concerning the inyan of עגלה ערופה, that there is a spiritual meaning, as it's explained in חסידישע ספרים, the meaning behind this mitzvah of עגלה ערופה. The parashah of עגלה ערופה, as we said before, starts with the words כי ימצא חלל באדמה אשר ה׳ אלקיך נתן לך לרשתה נפל בשדה, that if you find a dead body in the ground, נפל בשדה, which means he fell in the field.

Now, what does the peshat that you find a dead body? Now, in רוחניות it means a person who is in a very, very low מדרגה, a person who is spiritually low, a person who does not fulfill the mitzvot, does not do what Hashem wants. Because as it says in the Zohar, that מאן דנפל מדרגיה איקרי מית, the one that falls down from his מדרגה, from his level, is called dead. And therefore, when it says you will find a חלל באדמה, you will find a dead person, this could refer to a dead person spiritually. Similar to the Chazal say that רשעים אפילו בחייהם נקראים מתים, that resha'im, even while they're alive, they're called dead. Why? Because life is kedushah. It says that ואתם הדבקים בה׳ אלקיכם חיים כלכם היום, that the Yidden, being that they are connected to Hashem, that's why they called alive. It says Hashem is called חיים, because it says ה׳ אלקים חיים הוא אלקים אמת, ה׳ אלקים, He is alive, so the true life is only Hashem and anything that's connected to Hashem. As the Chazal say, עשרה נקראו חיים, there are 10 things which are called life, and all these are the things that are connected to Hashem. Hashem is called chayim, the Torah is called תורת חיים, בני ישראל are called חיים, בית המקדש, the different things which are connected to Hashem are called chayim. Anything which is not kedushah is not called chayim, is not called life. And the reason for that is because the true life is if it's going to live constantly. If it lives only for a time, and eventually it's going to stop living, then even while it's alive, it's not really called alive, because potentially it's dead, similar to what the Rabbeinu Bachya says in the beginning of Chumash, on the פסוק where Hashem said that Adam Harishon, the day he is going to eat from the עץ הדעת he's going to die. And the truth is that after he ate from the עץ הדעת, he still lived over 900 years. So he says that from that time on, since potentially a person is going to die, so then we could consider it as if he died right away. And it's based on the fact, he says, that תינוק משנולד מתחיל להתייבש. A child, from the moment he is born, starts drying up, starts dying already. But the inyan it means that since a person eventually will die, so potentially he's, he died already, so he's not really really alive. The true life is something that lives forever. And that is Hashem and anything that's connected to Hashem. And that's what the פסוק says, השם אלקים חיים הוא אלקים אמת. Hashem is life and Hashem is truth, because truth and life go together. Truth means something that's true completely. There's no such thing as something should be true now and not true tomorrow. If it's true, it's eternally true. Just to give an example, for instance, one and one is two, that is true. So you can't say today one and one is two and tomorrow it'll change, or in one place one and one is two, someplace else one and one is three. If it's true, it's true all over. And that's the inyan of life also, that when is something really considered alive? If it's going to stay forever, ever. And that is only Hashem and Torah and בני ישראל and all other things which are connected to Hashem. But those resha'im, since that they are not kedushah, so they are called dead. So when the פסוק says, כי ימצא חלל באדמה, you will find a dead body, that refers to a person who is in a very low madreigah, a person who is not connected to Hashem. And the פסוק continues, נופל בשדה, he fell, which means he fell in his madreigah, he fell down very low. And the reason he fell, the פסוק says, because בשדה, he was in the field.

What the inyan of the field? We know that there are three categories. There's a category of ir, a city, there's a category of a sadeh, a field, and there is a category of a midbar, which is a desert. Now it says that what is the inyan of a city? So we find a pasuk where it says in תהלים, גדול השם ומהולל מאד בעיר אלקינו. Great is Hashem and very praised in the city of our God. So it says in sefarim that the inyan of ir represents a place which is close to Hashem, a place which is full of kedushah, because a city is a place where people live. Concerning a desert, it says in pasuk that מקום אשר לא ישב אדם שם, a place where adam, a person doesn't live, but a city is a place where a person, where people live. Now the remez, the hint that this teaches us is that adam sometimes refers to Hashem, כביכול. He is called the adam ha-elyon, the adam from above, not that chas veshalom he is a person, but he is referred to with the title adam. As it says, ועל הכסא דמות כמראה אדם. It says in Tanach by the merkavah that what Yechezkel saw was that on top of the kisei was an adam, that it refers to Hashem who was sitting on the kisei hakavod. Now Hashem is not chas veshalom an adam, but just an expression that we use concerning Hashem and he is called adam. And that's one of the reasons a human being down here is called adam, as the Shelah says, because it comes from the word אדמה לעליון, I am compared to the one above. So the adam down here has so many things which come as a hishtalshelut, as a continuation, so to speak, an extension of creation of Hashem the way it's above. But anyway, adam could be a remez to the adam ha-elyon, to Hashem. So a place where an adam lives, that means a place where the Shechinah dwells, where we could say ושכנתי בתוכם, השם said that make for me a mikdash and I will dwell amongst them, so there's a place where the Shechinah dwells, and that is called a city. And that is the remez in the inyan of a city, because a city is made up of many houses. Houses are made up of bricks. And bricks are a remez to words. That it says in Sefer Yetzirah that שתי אבנים בונות שתי בתים, two stones build two homes, three stones, he says, build six homes, four stones build 24 homes, etc., etc. Now what the Sefer Yetzirah actually means is that when you have two letters, you can make two words out of it. For instance, אלף בית, you could make two words, אלף בית or בית אלף. If you have three letters, then you can make six words, six tzirufim. You could have אלף בית גימל, אלף גימל בית, בית אלף גימל, בית גימל אלף, גימל אלף בית, גימל בית אלף. And when you have four letters, then you can make 24 tzirufim, etc., etc., 20 24 different combinations. But what we see from there is that when the Sefer Yetzirah wants to refer to words, letters, he uses the term stones building houses. So they are a remez of words. So when it says עיר, we have a city, a city is made up of bricks, made up of words. That is a remez to a place where you have words of Torah. So this is all to show that the city that represents a place where there is kedushah, where there is Torah and mitzvot, and automatically the Shechinah dwells there. A midbar, as we said before, is a מקום אשר לא ישב אדם שם, it's a place where the adam doesn't live, means a place where the אדם העליון, where Hashem is not there, a place where there is no kedushah. It's a מדבר שממה, it's an empty place, not only empty from physical things, but since it's empty from physical things, it's a remez, it's a hint to the emptiness in ruchniyus. A שדה, a field, is in between. It is not like a midbar, it is not like a desert, where people don't go klal, and it's empty, and there is no water, which represents תורה, אין מים אלא תורה, water represents Torah. So a midbar is a place where there is no water, there is no Torah. It's a place of צמאון, a place where people are thirsty, whoever gets there. But a שדה is a place where people do come, and you do find water there. Nevertheless, a שדה is not a place where people live. A field is not a place where people live. There things grow, but people don't live there. So even though it's not as bad as a midbar, as a desert, but nevertheless, שדה also represents a place where there is not too much kedushah. And this is what the pasuk says there, if you find a חלל באדמה, you will find a dead body, which means in ruchniyus you will find a person who's in a very low madreigah, is in madreigah of death. רשעים בחייהם קרויים מתים, a rasha is called dead. And you will find him נופל, he fell, which means he's in a he fell down to a low madreigah. And the reason for that is because he was בשדה, because he came to a place where the environment was an environment with without kedushah. He was in a place of שדה where there is not too much kedushah, and therefore, he fell. Had he stayed in an environment of kedushah, this wouldn't have happened to him. As the Rambam says that a person must be influenced by his environment, and therefore the Rambam says that if a person has no choice, or to live someplace by himself, in a desert, for instance, or to live in a place where there are bad people, he says better go away to a place without anybody, rather than living with with bad people. And this means that a person should go out against his nature, because the nature of a person is to be social and to have friends. As the Gemara says that Choni HaMa'agel said, או חברותא או מיתותא, or I should have friends, and if not, I'd rather die. Nevertheless, the Rambam says that if a person has no choice, or to be with bad friends, in a place where the environment is no good, or to be all by himself, he should rather be all by himself. So the pasuk says here the reason this person came to a low madreigah, because he was influenced by his environment. He was בשדה. He was in a place where there is no kedushah.

So at first glance, a person would think, therefore we should not have anything to do with this person. It's his own fault. He was the one that went to the שדה, so therefore, why should we care about him? Why should we worry about such a person? But the pasuk says, no. The pasuk says not only that we have to care about him, but who has to care about him? The סנהדרין גדולה, the Sanhedrin, the big Sanhedrin, from the Yerushalayim, who sat in the לשכת הגזית, they have to come out and they have to do something about it. And certainly the zekenim of that city where he was. And what do they have to do? They have to come out and they have to say, as Rashi explains, that it's not our fault that he died, which means that they have to say that we did not let him go without food, and we did not let him go by himself, etc., etc. Now in ruchniyut it means this is to show this is the obligation of the zekenim, of the Sanhedrin, to make sure that he has food. What kind of food? Now we know food could also mean תורה ומצות. We know that Torah is compared to bread, it says ולכו לחמו בלחמי, which is a remez that Torah is bread, אין לחם אלא תורה. There's another pasuk that says ותורתך בתוך מעי, that your Torah is in my stomach, so Torah is compared to food. Mitzvot are compared to לבושים, to garments, as the pasuk says וכי תראה ערום וכסיתו, if you will see a naked person, you have to cover him, cover him with clothes. So it says in Midrash that what does that mean? That if you see a person who is ערום מן המצות, he is naked from mitzvot, you have to cover him with mitzvot. As it says in Tana D'vei Eliyahu Rabbah פרק כ״ז. So this shows that the Sanhedrin, they are responsible to make sure that this person, even a person like that, a person who goes to the שדה, to the field, a person who has bad friends and he's in a bad environment, he's in an environment of a שדה where there is no אדם, no אדם of kedushah, even to such a person, the זקנים and the Sanhedrin have to care about. And not only the זקנים from that city, which means a סנהדרין קטנה, the זקנים from a small Sanhedrin, but even the זקנים from סנהדרין גדולה, from the great Sanhedrin, they also have to care about such people.

And this fits to what it says in Tana D'vei Eliyahu Rava in פרק י״א, it says that היה להם לסנהדרי גדולה שהניח משה ויהושע, the סנהדרי גדולה that משה and יהושע left, what did they have to do? לקשור חבלים של ברזל במתניהם, they had to tie ropes of metal on their sides. ולהגביה בגדיהם למעלה מארכובותיהם, they should pick up their clothes. ויחזרו בכל עיירות ישראל, they have to go around all the cities of the אידן, יום אחד ללכיש וכולי, one day to לכיש and one day to another place, וכן בכל מקומות ישראל, and so to all other places of the אידן, ילמדו את ישראל, and they should teach the אידן. And the purpose is, as it says there, כדי שיתגדל ויתקדש שמו של הקדוש ברוך הוא בעולמות, that Hashem's name should become great and holy in the worlds. And this, it says, is the obligation of the Sanhedrin. And it says that because they didn't do that, this was the reason why so many people were killed by the Pilegesh B'Givah, the story in Tanach concerning the Pilegesh B'Givah. And this is what the pasuk here concerning the עגלה ערופה is telling us also, that it's the obligation of the Sanhedrin to see that this person who is a מת, who is dead, he נופל, he fell, נפל מדרגא, he fell to a low מדרגה, a person who goes out to the שדה, which represents a מקום of טומאה, not a place of kedushah. As we find in Chumash that עשו איש שדה, עשו is a place of the שדה, Yaakov is יושב אוהלים, יעקב sits in the ohel, in the tent, which means Yaakov, which represents kedusha, is in the city, is in the עיר, and who's in the שדה? That's Esav. So here we're talking about a person who is in the שדה, in the place of Esav. And nevertheless, the Sanhedrin have to care about him too, and have to make sure that he has the proper mezonot, the proper food, which represents Torah, he has to have the proper levushim, the proper garments, which represent mitzvot, and they have to walk with him, as it says here, which means they have to help him go and get out of the שדה and get to the place of the עיר, get to a place of kedusha. And as we see in the halacha of עגלה ערופה, that this was not in Yerushalayim, the din is that by Yerushalayim, if this happened close to Yerushalayim you don't measure, אין מודדים לירושלים, because Yerushalayim doesn't bring an עגלה ערופה, as the Rambam says in הלכות רוצח פרק ט׳ הלכה ד׳. So mimela this could only be outside of Yerushalayim. Now we know that Yerushalayim represents kedusha because the word itself is made up of two words: יראה שלם. Yerushalayim represents yirat shamayim, yirah, complete yirat shamayim. Now this could only take place outside of Yerushalayim, and nevertheless the Sanhedrin have to go and make sure that this doesn't happen, and make sure that even a person like this also has the proper Torah and the proper mitzvot, and he is led to lead a life of kedusha.