Comentários de Citação sobre Números 15:22

Perhaps we may best understand this after reading a comment in Horiot 8 concerning Numbers 15,22 where the Torah speaks about the Israelites committing the sin of idolatry, albeit inadvertently. The Torah writes: "If you err and not observe all of the commandments of the Lord, etc." [The reader of these words must surely wonder how one could inadvertently fail to observe all of G'd's commandments. Ed.] The Talmud concludes that the Torah refers to the violation of a single commandment, that of idolatry. If one violates that commandment it is as if one had violated all the commandments, seeing the violation implies that one denies the authority of G'd and His Torah. In view of the fact that the Israelites had been guilty of precisely this sin, they needed to compensate for all the 613 commandments which they had violated. This is obviously very difficult if not impossible. The Torah therefore offers them an opportunity to rehabilitate themselves by means of the observance of the Sabbath. This is the reason this commandment is repeated here once again. When Moses speaks of לעשות אותם, he refers to the multiple תקוו, rehabilitation, which the observance of the Sabbath in all its details entails. What precisely are "these words?" They are on the one side that we are to work for six days, ששת ימים תעשה מלאכה, and by contrast to treat the seventh day as holy, וביום השביעי יהיה לכם קדש. All of this explains why the Sabbath legislation is mentioned here again seeing it has already been mentioned many times. On the subject of Sabbath observance being an antidote to the sin of idolatry, the Talmud Shabbat 118 quotes Isaiah 56,2 where the prophet praises the person observing the Sabbath. The Talmud says that even if (prior to having become a Sabbath observer) a person had been guilty of the kind of idolatry performed in the days of Enosh G'd will forgive him or her.

When one unintentionally violates any of these thirty-nine categories and is obligated to bring a sin offering, the offering is a goat or a lamb, as explained in the portion of Vayikra (Leviticus) when it states, "And if one soul sins unintentionally... he shall bring his offering, a female goat a year old for a sin offering" (Leviticus 4:27). However, if the individual who unintentionally transgressed is the only one in the entire nation who violated the prohibition of idolatry, the sin offering he is required to bring is a goat, as it is written in the portion of Shelach (Numbers) when it states, "And if any one soul shall sin unwittingly... he shall bring a she-goat of the first year for a sin offering" (Numbers 15:27). This is because the verse in Shelach specifically mentions unintentional transgressions. Therefore, it is explained that when referring to unintentional transgressions, it is as if the Torah states, "And if you unintentionally transgress and do not observe all these commandments" (Numbers 15:22). Our Sages have said that this mitzvah is equivalent to all the other mitzvot combined, as is explained in the Sifrei (a Midrashic work) on that portion.

The above is true with regard to all sins except accidental idol worship. If a court ruled that an action was not idol worship and the majority of the community performed the action, and later it was found that the court ruled wrongly, the court must bring a bull and a goat. This situation is referred to in Numbers 15:22-29. If an individual accidentally worshipped idols, he only brings a goat as a sin-offering. This situation is referred to in Numbers 15:27-29.