In this first chapter of Horayot, we have been dealing with the sacrifices required in the aftermath of judicial error. The mishnah on today’s daf explores the consequences for mistakes that are made not by the high court of 71 judges in Jerusalem, but rather by individual tribal courts. If that happens, who is liable, and what sacrifice, if any, must be brought?
If the court of one of the tribes issued a ruling and (the majority of) that tribe performed (a transgression) on the basis of it, that tribe is liable and the rest of all the tribes are exempt — this is the statement of Rabbi Yehuda.
And the rabbis say: One is liable for rulings of the high court alone, as it is stated: “And if the entire assembly of Israel shall act unwittingly” (Leviticus 4:13), but not the assembly of that tribe.
Already in the mishnah we have a disagreement about whether the members of one of the 12 tribes of Israel, having acted improperly based on an erroneous ruling of their tribal court, are liable to bring an offering or not. Rabbi Yehuda says yes, and the other rabbis say no.
The two opinions hinge on how they each understand the source text in Leviticus 4:13: “And if the entire assembly of Israel shall act unwittingly.” The Hebrew word translated as “assembly” is edah. Rabbi Yehuda understands edah in the context of our mishnah to mean “tribe,” and therefore he rules that the entire tribe is liable for an error of its particular court, whereas the other 11 tribes would be exempt. But we have another word for tribe: shevet. Because the word used in the verse from Leviticus is edah, the majority of the sages hold that a tribal court error doesn’t rise to the level of a mistake by the high court, which rules for the entire community of Israel, and therefore they don’t warrant a sacrifice.
But are there times that a tribe can be considered as an entire community, or vice versa? The rabbis spend much of the remainder of the daf arguing this point. Finally, a proof that an individual tribe can be characterized as a congregation (and would thus be liable for a sacrifice) is brought from an episode in the Bible.
And Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Shimon, from where do they derive that one tribe is characterized as a congregation? The sages say as it is written: “And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem before the new courtyard in the house of the Lord” (II Chronicles 20:5).
Second Chronicles describes a military campaign conducted by King Jehoshaphat, who ruled the southern kingdom of Judah from approximately 870 to 849 BCE. Fearful of the approaching enemy army, the king proclaims a communal fast and prays to God. More importantly for our purposes, the Gemara explains that Rabbi Yehuda’s opinion is valid because the verse employs the term “congregation” in reference to Judah, implying that one tribe can in fact be characterized as a congregation. Therefore, in keeping with the instructions in Leviticus, a tribe should bring a sacrifice if its members err based on a faulty tribal court ruling. Another biblical example follows, as the Torah also refers to the tribe of Benjamin in Genesis 48:4 as a congregation. In both of these proof texts, the Hebrew word used for congregation is kahal, not edah, but the point remains clear: An individual tribe can be viewed as a congregation for the purpose of determining responsibility to atone for acting in an erroneous manner.
In the end, the law is according to the rabbis — only erroneous decisions of the high court merit communal sacrifices. But the discussion about whether an individual tribe is considered equivalent to a whole community is an interesting one. Being part of one congregation doesn’t obviate our connection to the larger community. If anything, a sense of belonging and inclusion often starts small and then expands — in times of collective joy just as in those of collective responsibility.
Read all of Horayot 5 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on September 6, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
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