Dear Reader,Welcome to the concise,
relevant Weekly Dvar. This week's Dvar was very timely for me
personally, and I hope you find it as timely for yourself. Either
way, enjoy...
* * *
Parshat Vayikra covers many of the offerings that were brought
before G-d, each of them brought as a consequence of an action or
sin being committed. Among the listings of possible sacrifices,
one description of a sacrifice stands out: The Torah says, "When a
leader sins, and does something he/she shouldn't do, and becomes
guilty..." (4:22). All other descriptions begin with "And IF a
person." Why is the Torah assuming a leader WILL sin? And if a
person sins, aren't they automatically guilty? Why the redundant
terminology?
The Sforno offers an insight that helps explain this Passuk
(verse). He explains that powerful and important people are more
likely to be observed sinning and thus must be more careful. But
the Passuk goes on to tell us that sinning isn't bad until the
person becomes "guilty", by not doing anything about what they
have done. The Sifra adds a beautiful exclamation point to this
lesson. The word meaning "will (sin)" is "asher", which is similar
to the word "ashrei", which means "praised". Why would a sinner
ever be praised? When a person admits that they are wrong, their
sins turn into praises, revealing their true character! In our
lives, we struggle to admit even to ourselves when we're wrong,
and it's even harder when others observe us. To be a true leader
is to admit when we're wrong, both to ourselves and to others!