תלמוד על כלים 5:10

²⁸Babli Bava meṣia` 59b. They wanted to excommunicate Rebbi Eliezer. They said, who will go and inform him? Rebbi Aqiba said, I shall go and inform him. He went to him and said to him, my teacher, my teacher²⁹Nobody else wanted to go since they knew that R. Eliezer’s rage would be deadly. R. Aqiba declared himself R. Eliezer’s student, insulating himself from the leaders of the preceding generation who pronounced the excommunication., your colleagues are excommunicating you. He took him outside, saying: Carob tree, carob tree, if practice has to follow their words, be uprooted. It was not uprooted. If practice has to follow my words, be uprooted. It was uprooted. If practice has to follow their words, turn back. It did not turn back. If practice has to follow my words, turn back. It turned back. All these extraordinary happenings and practice do not follow Rebbi Eliezer. Rebbi Ḥanina said, when it was given, it also was given to follow the majority opinion³⁰Ex. 23:2. This declares rabbinic consensus to be superior to prophetic inspiration. This claim of rabbinic authority to override the will of Heaven is the mirror image of Jesus’s claim (Matth. 12:8) that the prophet (Son of Man) is master over biblical laws.. [Did Rebbi Eliezer not know that practice has to follow the majority opinion?]³¹Addition by the Venice editor, justified by G where one reads ולית ר׳ ליעז….. רבים להטות. He was offended only because they burned his food prepared in purity in his presence³²This follows the story in the Babli that R. Eliezer was excommunicated in his presence.. There we have stated³³Mishnah Kelim 5:10.: “If it was cut into strips and sand was placed between any two strips, Rebbi Eliezer declares pure³⁴In Mishnah Kelim, “pure” always means “impervious to impurity”; “impure” means “susceptible to impurity”. Since every strip of pottery is not a vessel and the connections between the strips are not permanent, the entire oven is not an implement and therefore pure. The Sages argue that since the oven is usable as described it is an implement and impure. but the Sages declare impure. This is the Ḥakhinai oven.” Rebbi Jeremiah said, a big itching was happening on that day: Everything on which Rebbi Eliezer gazed was burned³⁵This describes the antique theory of vision, that the image in the eye is formed by rays emanated from the eye and scanning the objects.. Not only that, but a grain of wheat might have been half burned and half not burned, and the walls of the house of assembly were weakened. Rebbi Joshua said to them, if colleagues are fighting, what does this concern you? There came an unembodied voice and said, practice follows My son Eliezer. Rebbi Joshua said, it is not in Heaven³⁶Deut. 30:12.. Rebbi Crispus, Rebbi Joḥanan in the name of Rebbi: If a person would say to me, that is how Rebbi Eliezer stated, I am stating following his words since the Tannaïm switch³⁷If a statement consistent with our practice is ascribed to R. Eliezer it need not be rejected since one may assume that it was ascribed to him in error.. Once he was walking in public and he saw a woman when sweeping her house throwing it out, it fell on his head. He said, it seems that today my colleagues are befriending me, for it is written: He lifts the downtrodden from the dung heap³⁸Ps.113:7. The Babli holds that R. Eliezer’s excommunication was lifted only at his death..