פירוש על סוטה 9:6

ולא בא לידינו ופטרנוהו – without food.

Introduction Our mishnah teaches the meaning of the declarations made after the neck of the heifer has been broken (vs. 7-8).

ולא ראענוהו והנחנוהו – without accompaniment.

The elders of that city then wash their hands with water in the place where the heifer's neck was broken and they say, “Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it” (Deuteronomy 21:7). But did we really think that the elders of a court of justice are shedders of blood! Rather, [the intention of their statement is that the man found dead] did not come to us [for help] and we dismissed him without supplying him with food and we did not see him and let him go without escort. The first declaration is made by the elders of the city closest to the unidentified corpse. The mishnah does not interpret their statement to mean simply that they did not shed the blood of the person murdered, for no one would suspect the elders of committing murder. Rather, the mishnah interprets them as exclaiming that that victim did not come to city and they turned him away in his hour of need. Clearly we can see here that according to the mishnah, if a person comes in need of charity to a city, and the people of the city do not help him, and he ends up being killed, it is as if they had killed him themselves.

Then the priests exclaim, “Absolve, O Lord, Your people Israel, whom You redeemed, and do not let guilt for the blood of the innocent remain among your people Israel” (vs. 8). They did not need to say, “And they will be absolved of bloodguilt” (, rather the Holy Spirit announces to them, “When you act in this way, the blood is forgiven you.” Verse 5 assigns a role to the priests, “The priests, sons of Levi, shall come forward; for the Lord your God has chosen them to minister to Him and to pronounce blessing in the name of the Lord…” It sounds as if the priests should make a statement or play some role, but the Torah does not say what they say or do. To fill this gap, the mishnah assigns to them the saying in vs. 8, which deals with absolution from sin, a role which priests often play. Verse 5 ends, “And they will be absolved of bloodguilt”. The mishnah teaches that this is not something stated by the priests, rather by a Holy Spirit paraphrasing the verse, promising those who perform the ritual that it is an effective means towards atonement.