לקוטי שיחות חלק ב׳ - שופטים

Teshuvah contains regret for the past and a resolution for the future. The resolution for the future corresponds to the cities of refuge, which exist only in Eretz Yisroel. Judges, by contrast, are found everywhere, because, on the contrary, a judge must understand the situation of the person being judged.

It is stated in the Sifri that judges and officers were appointed even outside Eretz Yisroel. The Sifri asks: “Could it be that cities of refuge also existed outside Eretz Yisroel? The verse therefore states, ‘These…’” Thus, a murderer who was outside Eretz Yisroel had to flee to Eretz Yisroel.

From the fact that the Sifri connects the cities of refuge with judges and officers—reasoning that since judges exist outside Eretz Yisroel, one might have thought that cities of refuge exist there as well—it appears that judges and officers are also connected with the concept of atonement.

For in teshuvah there are two elements: regret for the past and a resolution for the future. The resolution for the future is represented by the cities of refuge. They exist only in Eretz Yisroel, which represents the level of a land “that desired to fulfill the will of its Creator.” If a person is not, so to speak, in Eretz Yisroel—if he has not placed himself in a state of doing Hashem’s will—then he is like one who immerses in a mikveh while still holding an impure creature in his hand.

Judges, however, must exist everywhere. On the contrary, a judge must understand the circumstances of the person who is being judged, as our Sages say: “Do not judge your fellow until you have reached his place.” It is therefore necessary that the judges also be present outside Eretz Yisroel.

The concept of cities of refuge applies on every spiritual level. On whatever level a person may be, a lack of the proper avodah required on that level constitutes, in a spiritual sense, “one who sheds the blood of man within man.”

The same applies to the cheshbon hanefesh, the spiritual accounting, of the month of Elul. Even those who devote themselves entirely to Torah study must make a cheshbon hanefesh.

It is self-evident that those who sit in the tents of Torah, and especially yeshivah students, must remain in the yeshivah during the month of Elul. This is contrary to the practice—which is against Torah and against ordinary human reason—of students leaving the yeshivah and traveling home during Elul.

This is also an instruction for those involved in business. During the days of Elul—and at the very least from Chai Elul onward and during the days of Selichos—a person must flee to the cities of refuge in Eretz Yisroel: to a place of Torah and Yiras Shamayim.

He must “flee there” in such a manner that “there shall be his burial”—in the sense of the teaching, “At one hundred years old, it is as though he has died, passed away, and ceased from the world.” This means that he has refined and elevated his individual affairs and personal faculties, so that his former worldly orientation has been nullified.