Sefer HaChinuch ספר החינוך

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.”

I have already written above (Sefer HaChinukh 95) that the sacrifice is intended to humble the desiring soul and to enlarge the intellectual soul. And therefore when a mistake comes to the great ones in something, it is well-known that it happened to them from the weakness of the intellect. And it is fitting to strengthen it in any case. And hence they come to the House upon which the Intellect impacts, do the act of the sacrifice and, by force of the action, put back into their hearts the inferiority of the erring animal soul and the importance of the straight and clear intellect. And from this pure thought, they will pay attention and comprehend with [the execution of] all of their rulings forever.

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 yeshivah be with them at the time they instructed; that they all be fit for instruction, as it is stated (Numbers 15:24), “if from the eyes of 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 is 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 becomes 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.

And their saying that the court is liable for a sacrifice means to say that the tribes of Israel bring a sacrifice for them, as it is elucidated in Horayot 5b. And if they erred in an instruction about idolatry, the twelve tribes bring twelve bulls for a burnt-offering and twelve goats for a sin-offering; and if in the instruction of other sins of excision for which one is liable a sin-offering when inadvertent, they bring [only] twelve bulls.

And if one [of the conditions] is lacking, one who does according to their word is liable for a fixed sin-offering and [the judges] are exempt. As the Torah only made the court liable for this sacrifice when they are complete — since there is in this instruction for sin of all the people, that their heads err and they be in their completeness.

And the rest of the many angles by which an individual is liable and they are exempt or they are liable and he is exempt; the difference in sacrifices between them, such as that which they, may their memory be blessed, said (Horayot 9a), “All of the commandments in the Torah for the volitional transgression of which one is liable excision and for the inadvertent transgression of which one is liable a sin-offering, the individual brings a ewe or female goat, the chieftain brings a male goat and an anointed priest and a court bring a bull” — and that is the high priest that was anointed with anointing oil (Horayot 11b); and the rest of its details are elucidated in Tractate Horayot and in [various] places in Zevachim. (See Mishneh Torah, Laws of Offerings for Unintentional Transgressions 14.)

And [it] is practiced at the time of the [Temple] when we have Great Sanhedrins.