'Some Say' (article summary)

Last Shabbos, I resumed articles in the Jewish Link. This is the last for Kiddushin, on daf 75 or so. You can read it in full (at the Jewish Link: flipdocs and HTML or as a paid Scribal Error post). Or click on the image to make it larger. Here is a briefer summary.

We have to be careful about Rabbi Eliezer vs. Rabbi Eleazar. The former is Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, a third-generation Tanna, while the latter is a fifth-generation Tanna, Rabbi Eleazar ben Shamua. Either due to scribal error or shortening of the name to ר”א, it is sometimes unclear who is being referred to. And this can make a practical halachic difference, in terms of aligning the positions of a specific Tanna and understanding his words. Or, because Rabbi Eliezer was shamuta, either put in cherem or a member of Beit Shammai, we often do not rule like him.

The gemara in Kiddushin 75 is one such difficult sugya or sugyot, and printings and manuscripts have different positions on whether it is Rabbi Eliezer or Rabbi Eleazar.

1. For the start of the gemara, I would say (like Masoret Hashas) that it is Rabbi Eleazar ben Shamua. You can know a Tanna by the company he keeps, and he is arguing with fifth-generation Rabbi Yehuda.

2. Amoraim in the gemara try to align Rabbi Eleazar with earlier Tannaim. In one attempt, there is a three-way dispute between Rabbi Yishmael, Rabbi Akiva, and a third opinion, Yeish Omerim. Who is this Yeish Omerim?

3. I take up the question of Rashi prematurely saying that this is Rabbi Eliezer. Why should he say this, when an Amora will say the same in the next line. He is rather saying that this is the position which we are trying to match up with, namely Rabbi Eleazar.

4. Then, what the Amora, Rav Iddi bar Avin is saying, should be inconsistent with the above. It should be a Tanna of an earlier generation more or less on par with Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Yishmael, fourth-generation Tannaim. So here, I would part ways with Masoret HaShas, and say that this is third-generation Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus.

5. Regardless, this Yeish Omerim is not the “famous” Yesh Omerim, from the story in which Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Natan tried to stage a coup against the Nasi, and were punished with Rabbi Meir being called Acheirim and Rabbi Natan as Yesh Omerim. That is because X will be referred to as Y is not the same as saying that every instance of Y is actually a reference to X.