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The Mishna on our daf teaches that the cases of the High Priest and the High Court are parallel. When the High Court rules erroneously and that decision is acted upon by the majority of the Jewish community, the High Court will be obligated to bring a sin-offering on behalf of the community. Similarly, when the High Priest made a decision on Jewish law in error and acts upon his ruling, he will bring a unique sin-offering.
In both of these cases it is not the forbidden act itself that creates an obligation to bring the sacrifice, rather it is specifically the mistaken ruling that precipitates the forbidden act that creates that obligation.
We explore the tension between public responsibility and private culpability has been a central concern of political philosophy since antiquity. When leaders act, do they act as individuals or as embodiments of institutional authority?
How should societies balance the need for effective governance with demands for accountability? These questions, which animate contemporary debates about executive power, political immunity, and democratic responsibility, find their earliest systematic treatment in an unlikely source: the Talmudic discussion of the Anointed Kohen's liability for sin.