We find many community leaders, politician, and heads of organisation who are happy to impose policies, laws and procedures on everyone else while flouting the same rules. “One rule for me and one rule for thee!”
Can we forget during COVID, the sight of many political and community leaders indulging in the very activities that the rest of the community were precluded from?
The Torah is quite specific about such hypocrisy.
Regarding the sin offering, the Torah tells us that “The kohen who offers it up as a sin offering shall eat it (the sin offering).” (6:19)
Rashi comments, “who performs the components of its service, that is, the one through whom it becomes a sin-offering.”
Contrast this to the Mincha (meal) offering, where any kohen could consume it (see 6:9).
Why the difference between the two?
R’ Meis Simcha HaKohen of Dvinsk notes that the sin offering always involves animal sacrifice unlike the meal offering that uses flour exclusively.
There are those that believe that animal sacrifice is cruel and inhumane – if a person sinned, why does the animal have to be sacrificed? In order to underline that this cannot be the paradigm of the kohen, the koehn who himself performs the sacrifice and the rites must consume from the meat of the animal that was involved in the sin offering. The kohen must demonstrate that he is fully committed to the task.
Indeed, Halacha (see Ramo YD 246) indicates that a Rabbi that has been asked a halachic question with respect to food and permits it, must partake of the food himself to show the conviction of his opinions.
It is not good enough for leaders to impose things on others while they feel that the law does not apply to them.
