Si uno trae mérito a los muchos, el pecado no viene de su mano, [para que no esté en Gehinnom y sus discípulos en Gan Eden]; y si uno hace pecar a muchos, no se le da la oportunidad de arrepentirse, [para que no esté en Gan Eden y sus discípulos en Gehinnom.] Moisés fue meritorio y trajo mérito a muchos [(enseñó la Torá a todos de Israel)]— se le atribuye el mérito de muchos, como está escrito (Deuteronomio 33:21): "Hizo la justicia del Señor y [hizo] Sus juicios con Israel" [es decir, "Sus juicios que están con Israel " — es como si él (Moisés) los hiciera.] Yeravam pecó y causó que muchos pecaran —se le atribuye el pecado de muchos, como está escrito (I Reyes 15:30): "Por los pecados de Yeravam, que cometió y que hizo que Israel cometiera". [No está escrito "por los pecados de Yaravam e Israel" implica que todo se atribuye a Yeravam.]
Or HaChaim
The word אדם used by the Torah here refers to the spiritually most advanced members of society, the elite. Zohar Tazria interprets the sequence of the words כי יקריב מכם, as "whom does one try and bring close to G'd, the מכם, the ones who have not been close in the first place, i.e. the spiritually lower level of society who have sinned and asked G'd not to bother them with His demands so that they could withdraw from the close bond with G'd." These are the people for the elite to focus on, to try and bring them back closer to G'd. This is why the Torah adds the words קרבן לשם, to be close to G'd, so that they will become what G'd called in the words of Isaiah 60,21: "the shoot that I planned, My handiwork in which I glory." A person of that calibre, involved in bringing others closer to G'd does not have to bring either free-will offerings or sin-offerings. Having finished with describing the task of the elite of the Jewish people, the Torah continues: מן הבהמה תקריבו את קרבנכם, i.e. the ordinary people are to offer their various kinds of sacrifices; after all, not everyone is on the spiritual level of those described as אדם, i.e. able to restore harmonious relations between sinners and G'd.
לאשמת העם, so as to bring guilt on the people; we may understand this statement as parallel to what we are taught in Avot 5,18: that if someone is engaged in conferring merits on others he himself will not commit a sin. When the High Priest himself commits a sin, this is proof that the people did not enjoy sufficient merits by reason of his activities that it should have protected him against committing a sin himself. This is the meaning of לאשמת העם.
למה תתענוWhy dost thou make us to err.23A. V., Why hast Thou made us to err? It is considered a blasphemy to say of God, that He causes men to sin; the object of the various explanations mentioned by I. E. is, to free the expression from this charge. Because God is the highest, first cause of everything, therefore He is mentioned as the cause of this erring. Others take it in a sense similar to that of the Rabbinical phrase לעשות תשובה אין מספיקין בידו he is not permitted to repent (Mishnah Aboth, 5:18).23aThis is said of him, who misleads others to sin; he is not permitted to repent, he cannot completely remedy the evil which he has produced. It is easy to mislead, but not so easy to make people, when once misled, understand their error, and return to the right way. The question, Why doest Thou make us to err? is to be explained in a similar way, namely, Why do we find it so difficult to repent, to undo our acts of wickedness? Why doest Thou not make the way of our return unto Thee smooth and easy? Some are of opinion that this is only the imagination of man;24People that feel some strong inclination to sin, are easily misled to imagine that God Himself prevents them from improving, and that it is no more in their power to master themselves. According to this explanation, the question Why dost Thou cause us to err? is to be taken literally, and to be considered as the expression of a false opinion widely spread among the people. others, again, say that this refers to those duties only which we cannot perform during our exile.24aAs e.g., the commandments introduced by a formula like When ye be come into the land; the commandments concerning the temple and the service therein.