Jewish & non-Jewish sins – Vayikra
T
he list of offerings includes sacrifices in expiation of sins.
There were deliberate sins and unwitting sins. Some wrongful acts are a mistake which would have been firmly prevented if we had possessed enough awareness of what was going on; others were the outcome of defiance of God.
In the view of most commentators, we are speaking about deeds carried out by Jews. The Sifra, however, thinks that the Torah text is concerned with acts committed by anyone, Jew or non-Jew. All are God’s children and all owe Him fealty.
True, there are certain types of sin that arise out of a person’s ethnicity or culture, but no human being is excused or acquitted because of where they come from.
