[Avodah] what was he thinking?

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Aug 22, 2010 at 07:17:40PM -0400, David Riceman wrote:
>  I attended a wedding this afternoon, and I, along with a local rabbi,  
> was an eid for the tenaim.  I wanted him to sign first because he's a  
> synagogue rabbi, and (I kid you not) he wanted me to sign first because  
> my beard is whiter than his.  Finally he asked me if I'm a talmid hacham  
> [sic], I said no (truthfully), and he signed first.

I think he was trying to invoke vehadarta penei zaqein and avoid having
to assess which one of you was the greater talmid chakham. You stymied
him on that, so he was thrown and didn't do the smoothest thing next.

Or perhaps, he figured that if you were a talmid chakham and lied about
it, you gave implicitly gave him reshus to sign first.

I didn't know signing first was a kibud, though.


BTW, side-note about talmid chakham... Seems to me the idiom expresses
the truism that we value the ameilus beTorah more than the resulting
knowledge. Otherwise, we would speak of chakhamim, not *talmidei*
chakhamim.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "I think, therefore I am." - Renne Descartes
micha at aishdas.org        "I am thought about, therefore I am -
http://www.aishdas.org   my existence depends upon the thought of a
Fax: (270) 514-1507      Supreme Being Who thinks me." - R' SR Hirsch