Our Gemara on Amud Beis quotes a verse (Bamidbar 15:24) that refers to the Sanhedrin as the “Eyes of the Congregation.” This is a curious term, and let us study the implications of describing the Sanhedrin or its leadership as the Eyes of the Congregation.

The entire Jewish people are as one body, with different personalities, castes, and roles serving various parts of the whole. The Cohanim, Levites, common folk, royalty, sages, and craftsmen are like parts of the body. Even if only one part physically performs, the entire body is part of the process and benefits. The leaders are like the eyes, centered in the head, directing the organism. Both actual vision and intellectual vision are necessary for leadership.

The Meshech Chochmah (Yisro 16) focuses on this idea and uses it to resolve a discrepancy in verses. A number of verses regarding accepting the Torah state, “Whatever Hashem says, we will do” (Shemos 19:8, 24:3). However, Shemos (24:7) states, “Whatever Hashem says, we will do and we will listen.” Why do some verses state only “we will do,” while another verse states, “we will do and we will listen”?

Since there are many mitzvos that can never be physically accomplished because they are not your role — such as mitzvos required of priests or of a king — to partake in the mitzvah, one should study the pertinent Torah portions and laws. This is meant by the “we will listen” clause. The verses where there is no “we will listen” were at the foot of Mount Sinai, where the entire people felt so unified that when one person did the mitzvah it was truly as if the other was doing it too: “As one person and one heart” (Rashi Shemos 19:2).

We see from here two ways the Jewish people express being as one body. Either in a practical manner of role division, where various castes perform their mitzvos and the entire group benefits while also participating via study; or, on an even higher level, when the Jewish people are of one heart and one body, even the actual performance of the mitzvah is as if each person is performing it personally.