Leviticus 4:22

At what time the ruler of his people shall have sinned, and done against any of the commandments of the Lord his God that which ought not to have been done, and he hath sinned through ignorance;

If a chief sins The verb and noun are reversed, to mean “If he who sins is the chief….” This verse is a continuation of the previous paragraph, beginning, “If the entire Assembly of Israel” [:13], as if Scripture had said, “and if the sinner is a chief of a tribe, or of a clan,”

ASHER’ A PRINCE SINNETH. “The word asher is [here] derived from the expression ashrei (happy). Happy is the generation whose prince brings an offering for atonement [even] for his error. [Torath Kohanim]. 5:1. 23. ‘O’ HIS SIN BE KNOWN TO HIM — ‘if’ his sin be known to him. There are many verses where the word o (or) is used in the sense of im (if), and conversely where im is used in the sense of o. Similarly, ‘o’ it be known that the ox was wont to gore [means ‘if’ it be known, and the word o which ordinarily means ‘or’ is here used in the sense of ‘im,’ meaning ‘if’].” Thus the language of Rashi.
Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra commented: “The sense of asher nasi yechta is as if the expression were inverted, making it read: asher yechta nasi (if ‘he who sins is the prince’), and it is connected with [the section] above, And if the whole congregation of Israel shall err. It is thus as if He had stated here: ‘and if he who sins is the prince [and he knows it of himself], or his sin be made known to him by others.’ Scripture, however, adopts a short form of expression, [omitting to state ‘that he knows the sin himself,’ or that it was made known to him ‘through others’], but the meaning is that either it becomes known to the prince by himself that he sinned, ‘o hoda eilav’ (or it be made known to him) — i.e., that another man who saw him doing it informed him of it. The grammatical form of hoda is then a past causative [like hodi’a — a man ‘informed’ him], this being similar to ‘v’heitzar lecha’ [the meaning of which is as if it said ‘v’heitzir lecha’ in the causative, i.e., and he will besiege thee]. The subject, however, is missing [for it should have said here, or ‘another man’ inform him, and there it should have stated, and ‘the enemy’ will besiege thee], just as ‘asher’ bore her to Levi” [which should have read ‘asher ishto’ (whose wife) bore her to Levi]. [All these are the words of Ibn Ezra.].
But there is no need for all this, since the uses of the word asher are many. In some cases it indicates time, such as: ‘ka’asher’ (when) Joseph came unto his brethren; ‘ka’asher’ (when) they had eaten up the corn,, 43:2. and the like. Similarly, here too [asher is like ka’asher and indicates time]: ‘when’ a prince sinneth, with …

אשר נשיא יחטא, the word אשר in this verse is similar to the word ואשר in the line ואשר ניתן כתר מלכות בראשו, which means וכתר מלכות אשר נתן בראשו, and the crown of the Kingdom which he had placed on his head. (Esther 6,8)

מצוות ה' אלוקיו, i.e. if he is a G’d fearing individual and has not sinned deliberately but inadvertently.

אשר נשיא יחטא, when the King (or political head) sins; there is no conditional word אם, “if,” i.e. the Torah considers it as almost a given that the political head of the people will become guilty of at least an inadvertent sin. Moses describes such a likely scenario as the result of the people enjoying good times, when he says in Deuteronomy 32,15 וישמן ישורון ויבעט, “when Yeshurun waxed fat it kicked. ואשם, he realised himself that he had sinned; it did not have to be brought to his attention by others. או הודע לו, or his sin had to be brought to his attention by others. The vowel cholem on the letter vav substitutes for the vowel shuruk which would have made it clear that it is a passive mode.