The Anointed Priest Who Sins and the God Who Shows No Favor

If the anointed priest sins: the judgment of the Holy One, blessed be He, is not like the judgment of flesh and blood. Flesh and blood shows favor to the community but does not show favor to the individual; the Holy One, blessed be He, is not so. The anointed priest sins, and he brings the bull. "And if the whole congregation of Israel errs, then the assembly shall offer" (Leviticus 4:13-14). If the anointed priest sins: the anointed priest atones, yet himself needs atonement. Rabbi Chiya taught: since the one who atones atones and the community is atoned for, better that the one who atones should precede the one being atoned for. We have learned, "And he shall make atonement for himself and for his household" (Leviticus 16:17) — this refers to his wife. If the anointed priest sins: Rabbi Levi said, wretched is the province whose physician is gout-ridden, and whose champion is blind in one eye, and whose defending advocate turns prosecutor in capital cases. "For the guilt of the people" (Leviticus 4:3): Rabbi Yitzchak said, a parable to a bear's claw [text uncertain] that was eating the arrangements set out for a bear. The king said, since it has eaten the bear's arrangements, let the bear eat it. So said the Holy One, blessed be He: since Shevna enjoyed consecrated property, let fire consume him.