וְהוֹצִ֣יא אֶת־הַפָּ֗ר אֶל־מִחוּץ֙ לַֽמַּחֲנֶ֔ה וְשָׂרַ֣ף אֹת֔וֹ כַּאֲשֶׁ֣ר שָׂרַ֔ף אֵ֖ת הַפָּ֣ר הָרִאשׁ֑וֹן חַטַּ֥את הַקָּהָ֖ל הֽוּא׃ (פ)
И он вынес бы тельца без стана и сожжет его, как сожжет первого тельца; это жертва за грех для собрания.
Ibn Ezra
it is the public’s sin-offering i.e., the bullock. But if Israel should err, and not do one of the positive commandments, then they must bring a bullock burnt-offering and a male goat sin-offering [Numbers 15:24].
Rabbeinu Bahya
חטאת הקהל הוא, “it is a sin-offering by the congre-gation.” The word הוא [masculine, instead of the word היא which we would have expected as the appropriate pronoun applicable to the feminine חטאת, Ed.] refers to the word הפר, “the bull,” earlier in our verse.
It is possible to view the word as an allusion to the sin of the golden calf (a male calf) which had been the only such collective sin of all the Jewish people in the desert. Our sages in Shemot Rabbah 42,5 state that because of this sin one of the feet of the merkavah, the carriers of G’d’s entourage, slipped at that time. They base this on Ezekiel 1,10 “and the face of the ox on the left of the four of them.” [In other words the “ox” symbolised the fact that through their sin at the golden calf the Israelites had undermined G’d’s throne, in particular the חיה with the face of an ox. Ed.]
It is possible to view the word as an allusion to the sin of the golden calf (a male calf) which had been the only such collective sin of all the Jewish people in the desert. Our sages in Shemot Rabbah 42,5 state that because of this sin one of the feet of the merkavah, the carriers of G’d’s entourage, slipped at that time. They base this on Ezekiel 1,10 “and the face of the ox on the left of the four of them.” [In other words the “ox” symbolised the fact that through their sin at the golden calf the Israelites had undermined G’d’s throne, in particular the חיה with the face of an ox. Ed.]
Rabbeinu Bahya
The type of sin-offerings to be brought by either the High Priest or the people [when they followed faulty High Court instructions] were the same, i.e. a two year old bull, because Aaron the High Priest had committed the error first [when making the golden calf, Ed.] and the people’s sin was a consequence of Aaron making the calf. The Torah ascribes the calf to the people when writing (Exodus 32,20) “the calf they had made.” A few verses later (verse 35) as if correcting itself, the Torah writes: “which Aaron had made.” In other words, the Torah is trying to explain the sin of the people as due to Aaron having committed the first error.