DEUT33 The passage dealing with a dead man who is found outside a city (Deuteronomy xv. 1-6) must be instanced again here, though passing reference has already been made to it. The elders of the city, responsible for the administration of its affairs, were bidden to slaughter a heifer and to wash their hands in public and exclaim "Our hands have not shared this blood". The Rabbis ask: (Sotah ix.7) "How could the elders be suspected of murder?" The reply is "If they failed to provide the poor in their charge with the necessary food, with the result that the needy man had to have recourse to highway robbery for his means of existence, losing his life while so engaged, it was the responsibility and the blame of the elders that a life had been taken. Similarly, if they left him without the necessary protection and he fell a victim by the roadside from starvation, it was again the responsibility of the elders before God." In this graphic way Judaism impresses upon its adherence that each one according to his station is responsible for the social conditions which create crime and poverty. A strict sense of justice sets the highest value upon all things that make man increase his power of doing good and of removing the causes of evil. From whatever angle we examine our ethical teachings, we see that our faith recommends and encourages a robust morality. It looks upon life as a continual battle for right against injustice, for truth against falsehood [this verse], for survival against extinction.