Efrat, Israel – A story is told about a young Israeli teen-ager who had only recently become an observant Jew of the Bratzlav persuasion – and was full of questions.  He came from an unobservant American family who had emigrated to Israel only five years before, and his mother still prepared a stuffed-turkey dinner replete with pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce in honor of the American Thanksgiving holiday.  The enthusiastic baal tshuvah approached his Meah Shearim trained, ten-generation Jerusalemite Rebbe: “I’m sorry,” he stammered ”and perhaps my question is out of place, but am I required to recite the ya’ale ve’yavo prayer on thanksgiving if I am celebrating it with my family?” The Rebbe looked surprised.  “What is thanksgiving?” he asked his new-found hassid.  The young man then approached a very knowledgeable history teacher, whose classes in the secular high school he was attending were the highlight of his day.  “I’m sorry, but might you know if one must say the ya’ale veyavo prayers on Thanksgiving?”  The amused instructor, who had come to expect virtually anything from this enthusiastic and irrepressible student, was taken aback.  “What’s ya’ale ve’yavo?,” he asked.  The student was frustrated but not deterred.  A government minister lived in his town, and just happened to be arriving home from Knesset.  Our student breathlessly ran up to him, almost poking his body-guard in the eye, “I’m sorry,” he began, “but perhaps someone as important as you might know.  Do observant Jews say ya’ale ve’yavo on Thanksgiving?’  The Israeli minister looked confused.  “What’s ‘I’m sorry’?” he asked.

For those of us who are living in Israel the story is too close to home to be amusing.  We have been struck by what feels like an avalanche of scandal and corruption in the highest of places affecting those holding the most exalted of offices – and no one so much as says “I’m sorry.”  And as usual, the timeless and timely Biblical portions of the week cry out with a message to which everyone must pay heed – especially our “leaders.”

During these last weeks we have read special Biblical and prophetic portions urging every Israelite to engage in self analysis and personal purification in anticipation of the month of Nissan, the period of our birth as a nation.  Our Bible insists that if Jewish national independence is to arrive and survive, we must first be worthy of that independence – ethically and morally. And the Almighty told Moses to instruct the Israelites that if anyone is guilty of transgression, “he/she must confess the sin which they committed” (Numbers 4:5-7).  The great religio-legalist philosopher Maimonides makes this commandment the hallmark of his Laws of Repentance (1,1), codifying that the command to repent must begin with confession of guilt, (spoken directly and personally to the individual or individuals one has wronged), remorse, and commitment to change.  If admission of guilt were not so difficult, it would not count as the very definition of repentance. 

Even more remarkable is what emerges from this week’s portion of Vayikra.  In Biblical times the individual would bring special sin offerings if he transgressed – but a sin offering without individual heart-felt repentance was not only meaningless but was considered by G-d an abomination, as was considered ritual punctiliousness without moral rectitude (Isaiah 1).  And after the Bible sets the stage by informing us that human beings will – of necessity, built in to the complex animal-angel nature of the human personality-sin (Lev. 4:1,2), who is the very first sinner to be singled out?  The High-Priest himself, the most exalted religious personality in Israel, the guardian of the Holy Temple.

Apparently, our Bible does not recognize one scintilla of “papal infallibility;” the Bible even emphasizes that “if the High Priest will sin, it is a transgression upon the whole nation,” a sacrilegious blotch on our national escutcheon (4:3, Rashi as loc.).  And on the great white fast of the Day of Forgiveness, the first individual to confess his guilt and request purification is the High Priest.  Indeed, the  first word to escape the mouth of our most sacred and exalted human being on the most sacred and exalted day of the year is “Anna”, please, oh, woe, a cry of personal and human anguish (as explained by my revered teacher, R. Joseph Dov Soloveitchik).

The next in line for sinning and admission of guilt is the Sanhedrin, the Highest Court in the land, the Keepers of the Divine law.  When the lawmakers sin in judgment, all of Israel automatically sins, because they-the-judges- are entrusted with seeing that justice is done throughout society.  The elders of the congregation as well as the High Priest must share in the guilt of the Sanhedrin, because they should have prevented the travesty of an unfit judiciary (Lev. 4:13,15,16)

And the third who is singled out, who must confess and atone, is the Prince (Nasi), the Ruler, the President, the Prime Minister.  And amazingly, whereas the Bible uses the word “if” (Hebrew im) regarding the transgression of the High Priest and the Sanhedrin, it uses the word “when” (Hebrew asher) regarding the Nasi, the President, the Prime Minister.  Why is the number-one wielder of power most likely to fall prey to sin?  It is because he comes to believe he is above-the law, that what is good for him is automatically good for the State?  Is it because he must rely on popular support, so he may fall prey to giving the people not what they need but what they want, to acting not in accordance with what is right but in accordance with the latest opinion poll (Meshekh Hakhma, ad loc)?  The Bible doesn’t quite tell us, but it does say that he is most vulnerable.

King Saul didn’t wait for Samuel the Judge to begin the public sacrifice, and lost the kingdom (Samuel 1, 13).  King David committed adultery and sent Bathsheba’s husband to the front lines of battle to die, and remained the progenitor of the Davidic Dynasty. (Samuel II, 12).  Why? Because Saul attempted to justify himself and blame the nation, whereas King David admitted his guilt and wept before the prophet and G-d. Rashi (Lev. 4:22) links the Hebrew “asher” (“when” the nasi sins) to the Hebrew “ashrei”, fortunate:  “fortunate is the generation whose nasi puts his heart and mind towards seeking forgiveness for his sins.”  Those in high office who cannot seek such forgiveness certainly ought not remain in high office!