The Torah says that when a leader sin. It assumes that the leader will make a mistake. It is the nature of the position. He then has to bring a sin offering to atone for his mistake.
This week’s parsha discusses the various offerings that were brought in the Mishkan and later in the Beit HaMikdash. Among them is the korban brought for an unintentional sin. For the average person, the Torah speaks in the language of “if” he sins. But when it comes to a leader, the Torah changes its language. It says, “when a leader sins” — not if, but when.
That is a remarkable insight into leadership. The Torah is telling us that leaders will make mistakes. Not because they are bad people, but because leadership requires action, judgment, and constant decision-making. A leader cannot sit on the sidelines. He has to decide, he has to act, and once you act, sometimes you get it wrong.
You can see this even in modern times. Look at presidents before and after they leave office — the job ages them. Leadership is not a nine-to-five position. It is 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Problems do not wait for business hours, and neither can a leader.
Perhaps that also helps explain an interesting detail about the sons of Yaakov. Yosef, though one of the younger brothers, died relatively young compared to the others — at 110. Binyamin outlived him. Yosef was the viceroy of Egypt, carrying enormous responsibility, dealing with crisis after crisis, famine, politics, and family turmoil. Leadership has weight. Responsibility has a cost.
The Gemara mentions four people who died only because of the decree that came through the serpent: Binyamin ben Yaakov, Amram avi Moshe, Yishai avi David, and Kilav ben David. What is striking is that these figures are known to us בעיקר because of who they were related to, not because they stood at the center of great public action. Binyamin, for example, is important, but in Chumash he is mostly acted upon rather than acting.
The message may be this: it is easier to avoid sin if you do very little. If you never take risks, never lead, never decide, never step forward, you can avoid many mistakes. But that is not leadership. Leadership means responsibility, initiative, and action. And once a person acts, mistakes become inevitable.
That is why the Torah says “when the leader sins.” It assumes that the burden of leadership will sometimes produce error. But the greatness of a Jewish leader is not that he never fails. It is that he takes responsibility, admits the mistake, and brings the korban.
Even David and Shlomo, great kings of Israel, stumbled. Greatness in Torah is not perfection. Greatness is accountability.
That is something worth thinking about:
The person who does nothing may avoid mistakes, but he also avoids greatness.
The leader, by contrast, may stumble — but he is the one who moves history forward.
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