Are Leaders Who Sin Better Leaders?

By RABBI DAVID ROSENN

Parashat Vayikra (Leviticus 1:1-5:26)

If a community leader commits an offense by doing unwittingly any of the things that the Lord has commanded us not to do, and he later realizes what he has done - or the sin of which he is guilty is brought to his knowledge - he shall bring as his offering a male goat without blemish.

(Leviticus 4:22-23)

The fourth chapter of Leviticus describes a method by which people who have done wrong by accident can atone for their transgressions. It may seem strange for someone to be held responsible for an act they didn't intend to do, but the Torah acknowledges that intention isn't everything. Sometimes the results of our actions affect us regardless of whether we intended those results or not.

To take an extreme example, if I accidentally injured someone, I may feel badly about having caused him pain even though I didn't intend to. And I will probably want to do something to relieve my feelings of guilt about having been the source of pain for another person. This is the idea behind the offerings required once a person realizes that he or she has sinned unintentionally—they are a device for acknowledging the wrongdoing and freeing the one who committed it from any lingering sense of guilt.

One of the categories mentioned in Leviticus 4 is the communal leader (nasi). The Talmud declares that the leader's offering is a remarkable event:

Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai taught: Happy is the generation whose leader brings a sacrifice for a sin he has committed unwittingly!

(Horayot 10b)

Commenting on this passage, a hasidic source explains just what is so remarkable about it:

Why is a generation whose leader sins and then repents so happy? Wouldn't it be better if the leader hadn't sinned at all? Actually, no. For a leader who has never sinned will be unlikely to forgive someone else for their sins, since he does not understand or feel the broken-heartedness of sinners, and instead distances himself from them and keeps away anyone who is not pure, like him.

(Menahem Dovid of Amshinov as cited in Itturei Torah vol. IV, p. 20)

What does this source teach about communal leadership? In choosing our leaders, do you think it is preferable to appoint someone with a spotless record or someone who has done wrong, realized it, and repented?