ויקרא, פרק ט׳, פסוק ט״ו

Having secured his own spiritual standing, Aaron the priest steps fully into his role as the representative of the nation. The transition from personal sacrifices to public ones establishes a fundamental principle: a spiritual leader must first achieve his own atonement before he can seek forgiveness for others [שטיינזלץ, מלבי״ם].

The narrative introduces Aaron's actions by stating his overall mission before detailing the specific steps of the sacrifice [ביאור יש״ר, רד צ הופמן]. This sequence highlights Aaron's swiftness and complete lack of hesitation [מלבי״ם]. It also reveals that his deep internal desire to draw the nation closer to God and repair the distance caused by past failures preceded the physical actions of the offering [אור החיים].

Taking charge of the moment, Aaron personally slaughters the animal [רלב״ג, רד צ הופמן] and carries out the precise procedures required for a sin offering [רש״י]. This involves carefully sprinkling the blood and applying it with his finger to the four corners of the altar, an act meant to purify the altar and secure atonement [אבן עזרא, נתינה לגר, מלבי״ם, אילת השחר, תורה תמימה, ביאור יש״ר].

The procedure for this public sacrifice is explicitly compared to the first offering of the day. Commentators agree that this does not refer to the ram offered just moments prior, but rather to the calf Aaron initially brought for his own personal sin offering. However, there are different perspectives on exactly how the people's offering mirrored Aaron's. One view suggests the similarity lies purely in the method of slaughter and the application of blood on the outer altar [תורה תמימה, אדרת אליהו, רלב״ג, מלבי״ם]. The blood was kept outside the inner sanctuary because the nation had already gained a measure of atonement through Aaron's earlier sacrifice [העמק דבר].

Conversely, another group of commentators argues that the comparison points to a deliberate departure from standard practice. Normally, public sin offerings are eaten by the priests. In this case, however, the animal was completely burned in the fire, matching the treatment of Aaron's first calf. This specific deviation later becomes the source of a fierce disagreement between Moses and Aaron. Moses expected the meat to be eaten according to regular law, whereas Aaron understood that it needed to be entirely consumed by fire, just like his initial personal offering [ספורנו, שטיינזלץ, חתם סופר, רד צ הופמן, פרדס יוסף].