יחזקאל, פרק כ״ב, פסוק כ״ו

The spiritual leadership of a nation is meant to serve as a beacon of holiness and moral guidance. Yet, instead of fulfilling their original purpose to protect the sacred spaces and impart knowledge, the priests betrayed their calling and became the primary drivers of religious and moral corruption.

This decline began when the priests essentially robbed the law, forcefully removing it from its proper place. The primary approach among commentators is that the priests simply refused to teach justice and proper conduct to the people. By withholding this knowledge, they stole the teachings from those who desperately needed them. Furthermore, because the priests themselves violated the laws, they lost all moral authority to rebuke the nation or warn the people against sinning [רד״ק]. Taking another perspective, some view these leaders as a greedy group who manipulated their sacred duties purely for personal profit [חומת אנך, ביאור שטיינזלץ].

This deep disrespect naturally led to the corruption of sacred matters. In direct violation of their explicit duties, the priests failed to maintain the strict boundaries between the holy and the ordinary, and between the pure and the impure. They consumed sacred meat while in a state of impurity and completely neglected to teach the Israelites how to distinguish between what was permitted and what was forbidden.

Their negligence extended to the most sacred times as well. When the priests saw the masses publicly breaking the Sabbath—such as by carrying heavy loads—they deliberately closed their eyes, pretending not to notice. They refused to protest against those who violated the Sabbath, even though this Commandment is considered equal in weight to all the other laws combined [מלבי״ם].

Ultimately, this widespread failure of leadership led to a tragic outcome. Instead of being sanctified and honored by the nation's spiritual guides, God's name and His will were thoroughly disrespected and profaned among the people.