Commento su 'Eduyyot 1:5

ויסמוך עליו – that is to say, that he acted according to the individual opinion and set aside the opinion of the majority.

Introduction This mishnah discusses the question why are minority opinions recorded in the Mishnah, if there is a rule that the halakhah (the law) is according to the majority opinion.

And why do they record the opinion of a single person among the many, when the halakhah must be according to the opinion of the many? So that if a court prefers the opinion of the single person it may depend on him. For no court may set aside the decision of another court unless it is greater than it in wisdom and in number. If it was greater than it in wisdom but not in number, in number but not in wisdom, it may not set aside its decision, unless it is greater than it in wisdom and in number. Generally speaking, when there is a dispute in the Mishnah between an individual Sage and the rest of the Sages, the halakhah is according to the Sages. This is due to a “majority rules” principle. Our mishnah asks why then, does the Mishnah record the minority opinion, if that is not to be the accepted halakhah? Before we begin to discuss the answer, which is somewhat difficult to decipher, we should recognize the importance of the question. The Mishnah is not purely a book of halakhah, Jewish law, because it contains a plurality of opinions. In my mind this makes an important statement about Judaism and Jewish law: the first great work of the Oral Torah, that work which continues to shape Judaism to this very day, is not a recording of what one is supposed to do. It records a dialogue between the Sages, meant to be learned and extrapolated. This is the process of “Talmud Torah” that continues to this day. Furthermore, the Mishnah teaches that minority opinions are not necessarily “wrong” even though they may not be accepted. The answer the mishnah provides to its question is slightly cryptic. I will explain it in one way, but there are others who have explained it differently. The mishnah records the opinions of individual Sages so that future courts might rely on their opinions and decide halakhah according to them. Although at the time of the Mishnah these opinions were not accepted by the majority, since they are not “wrong”, in the future other courts may accept them. If a future court were to disagree with the opinions of an earlier court, and there was no recorded minority opinion, they could only change the decision if they were both wiser and greater in number than the earlier court. In other words there are two ways, according to our mishnah, that a future court can overturn an earlier decision: 1) by relying on a minority opinion; 2) by being greater in number and wisdom.

אין בית דין – Another which would arrive after him is able to nullify the words of the earlier Jewish court who acted according to the words of the individual (i.e., minority view), until it is greater than him in wisdom and in number. In wisdom – that is, that the head of the Academy of the latter Jewish court would be greater in wisdom than the head of the Academy of the former [Jewish court]. In number – that the number of the students in the latter Academy would be greater than the number of students in the former Academy.