Halakhah zu Wajikra 4:13

The commandment of the sacrifice of the court if they erred in instruction: That the Great Sanhedrins offer a sacrifice if they erred and instructed not like the law about weighty sins for which we are liable excision and the community or their leader acted according to their word; as it is stated (Leviticus 4:13), "If the whole community of Israel erred and the thing was hidden, etc."

From the laws of the commandment is (for example,) that which they, may their memory be blessed, said (Horayot 4b) that there is a mistake in the instructions [for which] the court is liable to bring a sacrifice, and not (upon) the one who does according to their word, and there is [one] where the doer is liable and not them. And these are from the necessary conditions for which the court would be liable and not the ones doing according to their word: That the instructors be seventy-one; that the head of the yeshiva be with them at the time they instructed; that they all be fit for instruction, as it is stated (Numbers 25:24), "if from the eyes if the community" - [not] until they be eyes for them, meaning to say, until they are fit for instruction; and the majority of them err in this matter that they instructed about; that they instructed explicitly, such that they said to the people, "You are permitted to do [it]"; that all of the congregation - or most of them - do according to their word; that the ones doing it are inadvertent according to their word and imagine that the court instructed properly, and not that those doing knew that they erred and did [it] nonetheless. And also that they instructed to nullify part [of the law] and preserve part of it (Horayot 3b), but not to uproot all of one commandment, as it is stated, "and the thing was hidden," - and not the whole body [of the commandment]. And this is a (teaching) decree of Scripture (gezerat hakatuv). And it is possible that the reason of the matter it that there is no concern that a mistake of uprooting the whole body of the commandment will not be revealed quickly. And when the sin become known to them, that they knew the actual thing that they instructed in error, and not that they were in doubt about which thing the error occurred to them - and even if they knew that they certainly erred in one [part]. And even if the sinners informed them and told them, "You erred in this" - since they do not remember that thing exactly, they are exempt; as it is stated (Leviticus 4:14), "And the sin is known" - meaning to say, to them, and not that others inform them. All of these conditions need to be in the thing, such that the court is liable for a sacrifice and not the ones that act according to their word.

He prohibited us from eating on the fast of Yom Kippur. But the Torah is not explicit about the prohibition of this act. Rather it mentions the punishment and makes one who eats liable for excision, such that we know he is prohibited from eating. And that is His saying, "For any person who will not be afflicted, etc." (Leviticus 23:29). And at the beginning of Keritot (Keritot 2a) when they listed those who are liable for excision, they listed among them, one who eats on Yom Kippur. And they explained there, that everything for which we are liable excision is a negative commandment - except for the Pesach-sacrifice and circumcision. Behold it has been confirmed that eating on Yom Kippur is a negative commandment. And therefore we are liable for excision for its volitional [transgression]; and a fixed sin-offering for its inadvertent [transgression] - as they explained at the beginning of Keritot, and as it is explained in Tractate Horayot (Commentary on the Mishnah on Keritot 2:3-4) - that this law is only mandated for a negative commandment, because of His saying about those that are liable for a fixed sin-offering, "one of the commandments of the Lord [concerning things] which should not be done." (Leviticus 4:13). And the language of the [Sifra] (Sifra, Emor, Chapter 14:4,9) is, "'For any person who will not be afflicted' - this is the punishment for the [non-] affliction. But we have not heard the prohibition about the [non-] affliction [on the day of Yom Kippur] itself! It is when it states the punishment for work. For let it not be stated, since it may be derived a fortiori, viz.: If [non-] affliction, [the ban against which] does not obtain on holidays and Shabbat, is [on Yom Kippur] punishable; then work [the ban against which] does obtain on holidays and Shabbat, how much more so should it be punishable! Why, then, is the punishment for work stated? To derive from it the prohibition against [non-] affliction: Just as the punishment for labor follows a prohibition, so [too] does the punishment for [non-] affliction follow a prohibition." Behold what we have said is explained. And the regulations of this commandment have already been explained in Tractate Yoma. (See Parashat Emor; Mishneh Torah, Rest on the Tenth of Tishrei 1.)