"Forgive Your nation Israel, whom You redeemed, O God, and do not place innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel." (Devarim 21:8) This appeal for forgiveness is made by the Kohanim subsequent to the discovery of a corpse and the Eglah Arufah procedure. (V. Rambam Hil. Rotzeach 9:3.)

The need for such an appeal is perplexing, for in the previous pasuk, the local beis din and elders proclaim that, "Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen (the murder)." (ibid. v.7) Rashi explains (from Sotah 46a) that the statement by the beis din and elders refers to the fact that the people did not neglect the victim while he was in town; they did not fail to offer him food or escort, such that he took to the road without security or provisions. Thus, since the town did not in any way contribute to the death of the victim, why is forgiveness necessary?

The answer is that although there is no individual culpability, there is an underlying communal responsibility which was amiss. These two levels of responsibility  - individual and commmunal - bind each Jew and the Jewish people as a whole. Thus, any wrong which occurs under our auspices, while not attributable to known single factors or persons, is by definition accounted to the community as a separate "corporate" entity.

This notion is deeply alluded to by the anonymity of the victim (v. 1), the unknown site and circumstances of his death (v. 2 with Targum Yonasan ben Uziel), and his unknown fate, had he lived (Rashi on v. 4). We cannot pinpoint anything about the crime; it is a total mystery. In this same realm of the unknown is the larger communal entity, which is undefined as to individuals and specific culpability, held accountable.

When someone is victimized under our shadow, something went wrong and we must repent for it; when wrongdoing occurs in our midst, even when no one seems to be culpable, we must take communal responsibility and corrective action.