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Article: Of unsolved murders and unworked heifers
- Article from:
- Jerusalem Post
- Article date:
- November 24, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightProvided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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MOSHE KOHN
Jerusalem Post
11-24-1995
WHEN the number of murderers increased in Eretz Yisrael, the rite of the egla arufa (broken-necked heifer) was abolished.
This was an expiatory rite for a murder in which the victim's blood was spilled and when the murderer was presumed to be a Jew and was untraceable at the time the corpse was found.
The elders of the locality nearest the corpse brought a heifer that had not been worked to a wadi in which water flowed, broke the heifer's neck, washed their hands over the neck in the wadi, and declared: "Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see."
Nevertheless, if the murderer was subsequently found, he was tried and, if convicted, ...