[Avodah] The Rosh ruled that a rav was a zaken mamre

[Shmuel Weidberg]

On Mon, Nov 8, 2010 at 9:59 PM, Micha Berger <micha at aishdas.org> wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 08, 2010 at 07:01:52PM -0500, Zev Sero wrote:
...
>> The Rosh seems to have taken a broader view of the power given him by
>> the king.

> I'm missing something... I asserted that courts have two capacities that
> justify execution:

> 1- The halachic requirement of dinei nefashos, and
> 2- The obligation of every society to protect its citizenry.
...
> Now the king could affirm that general right for an autonomous Jewish
> community to execute people. But ... how could he reverse the requirement for
> the beis din hagadol to meet in the lishqas hagazis, a beis din of 23,
> eidus, hasraah, etc... that is necessary for the accused to be chayav
> misas beis din?

> So, even if he found this rav guilty of being a zaqein mamrei, how could
> the king change the fact that it doesn't cause a chiyuv misas beis din?

It is not clear whether he would have actually killed him, but it seems
likely that he would have because he writes that if he ultimately doesn't
listen, yodunu oso bedin zaken mamre. The one who added footnotes writes
on those words that you should look at a previous series of teshuvas
where he discusses killing a moser to see his opinion regarding killing
people bizman hazeh.

It could be that he considered him dangerous enough to kill him even
nowadays because he was threatening the mesorah or because he was causing
other people to be nichshal in carrying on shabbos by not making an eruv
although it doesn't seem likely that they would have been over a deoraisa.