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

[Zev Sero]

On 9/11/2010 8:31 AM, kennethgmiller at juno.com wrote:
> R' Zev Sero wrote:
>
>> The Rosh seems to have taken a broader view of the power given him by
>> the king.
>
> Please explain your understanding of the Rosh's view on this. The local civil king might have granted the Rosh some very broad powers, but if the Torah denies him those powers, what good is the king's permission?
>
> In other words: According to my understanding, there are only two circumstances under which the Torah allows a Jew to kill another: (a) In the case where a duly-constituted beis din has sentenced someone to death, and (b) To prevent a murderer or potential murderer from murdering, and this includes lots of cases such as self-defense, getting rid of a moser, and the like.

I don't have sources to hand, but if I recall correctly there are
examples of capital punishment being applied in Spain to mechalelei
shabbat, etc.  The theory seemed to have been that in the absence of a
real BD, one must simply continue with the best that one can do; and
that since the king allowed them to govern their own affairs, they took
advantage of this to apply din torah as best they could.

-- 
Zev Sero                      The trouble with socialism is that you
zev at sero.name                 eventually run out of other people’s money
                                                      - Margaret Thatcher