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וַיֹּ֡אמֶר אִם־נָא֩ מָצָ֨אתִי חֵ֤ן בְּעֵינֶ֨יךָ֙ אֲדֹנָ֔י יֵֽלֶךְ־נָ֥א אֲדֹנָ֖י בְּקִרְבֵּ֑נוּ כִּ֤י עַם־קְשֵׁה־עֹ֨רֶף֙ ה֔וּא וְסָֽלַחְתָּ֛ לַֽעֲו‍ֹנֵ֥נוּ וּלְחַטָּאתֵ֖נוּ וּנְחַלְתָּֽנוּ:

And Moshe said: "If I have now found favor in Your eyes, O Lord, let the Lord go now in our midst [even] if they are a stiff necked people, and You shall forgive our iniquity and our sin and thus secure us as Your possession." (shemot, 34:9)

This plea for forgiveness on behalf of the people was made by Moshe after the sin of the golden calf. Interestingly, he chose to use the plural form ‘our iniquity and our sin’, when one would have expected him to say ‘their (i.e. the Jewish peoples’) iniquity and their sin’. Why does Moshe count himself among the sinners when he was on Har Sinai during the episode of the golden calf?

The Ben Ish Chai answers that Moshe took part of the blame for a sin he did not commit because he understood the importance of collective responsibility. Every Jew helps to uphold the laws and traditions of our people, and if even one Jew falters, it brings down the entire nation. The Vidui service on Yom Kippur is written in the plural form, ‘we have transgressed, we have betrayed’, etc. to enforce the idea that even if we ourselves are not guilty of a specific sin, we ask for forgiveness on behalf of the whole Jewish people.

Moshe did not participate in the sin of the golden calf, yet asked for forgiveness in the plural form because of this collective responsibility that all Jews have for one another. The festival of Purim is essentially about unity and making sure that every Jew is included in feeling of nationhood through matanot le’evyonim and mishloach manot. It is a chag with collective responsibility at it’s core, and we should all try to uphold and support everyone in the Jewish nation this Purim!