Mussar sobre Levítico 4:22

And the brunt of the responsibility lies in the city dignitaries, who have the power to protest and to amend, as Chazal have said on the verse, Vayikra 4:21: "It is the sin-offering for the assembly," followed by (Ibid. 21): "If a leader sin," to teach us that the sin of the assembly is the sin of the leader, in that he is held responsible for not seeing to it to correct matters.

אשר נשיא יחטא . Rashi comments on this that the אשר word can be read as אשרי, "hail to" a generation in which the leader acknowledges personal guilt (4,22). When the leader acts in such a way the ordinary people are encouraged to own up to their own shortcomings and to make amends. Another moral lesson to be learned from the positioning of this verse next to a verse discussing the errors of the whole community is that the sins of a community automatically reflect on its leader, because the leader should have used his authority to prevent any sin by the community.