The high priest (Kohen Gadol), Aaron, is known throughout rabbinic literature as the paradigm personality who loved others and sought to make peace between strife-torn family, friends, or neighbors.

It’s out of character then as the Torah describes his Yom Kippur service: he is to atone for himself, his household (possibly including the entire tribe of Levi), and only then for the entire People of Israel.

True, the Torah here is commanding not only Aaron, but each high priest to follow him. Even so, it seems disconcerting. In the holiest part of the Temple, at the holiest time of the service, on the holiest day of the Jewish year, as the high priest is facing the Almighty for the first time to plead forgiveness and beg mercy, he first and foremost focuses on those closest to him.

What tradition teaches here is this is appropriate conduct. A leader must always have his community in mind, but his heart belongs first to others.

That’s a lesson for us all, but as far as government and politics, the lesson is that what James Madison famously called factions (see Federalist No. 10) can also be addressed by focusing on them first, but never solely. A state or a district can have its own needs, and a community its separate agenda. A nation surely has its own interests.

Yes, everyone must work to “take care of their own.”

This doesn’t mean they do so unfairly. It doesn’t mean those closest get a better deal.

But after the first, there are others who deserve our attention. Government must come together to serve the needs of all.

Words to consider. Ideas to ponder. Politics and the parsha.

Howie Beigelman works at the intersection of nonprofit advocacy and Jewish communal affairs. Follow him on Twitter @howielb.

By Howie Beigelman