[Avodah] who came first?

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 02:43:36PM -0500, Lisa Liel wrote:
>> Wouldn't he be a zaqein mamre (who was also always born before the pesaq
>> in question) if he doesn't?
>
> I'm pretty sure you can't have a zaqen mamre without a Sanhedrin,
> or at the very least without smukhim. And given that he's the only
> samukh alive, I suspect his paskening authority way outranks that of
> any other authority.

I was thinking of the first millennium, from Eliyahu's ascension through
R' Hillel's Sanhedrin or (according to the Rambam) chasimas hashas.

But I was mistaken. According to Sotah 45a, a ZM not only has to resist
the pesaq of the Sanhedrin, the Sanhedrin has to be in the lishqas
hagazis. From the pasuq's words "el hamaqom".

On Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 10:39:55PM +0300, Liron Kopinsky wrote:
:                          ... since Eliyahu would have the shortest lineage
: to moshe rabbeinu (and presumably the most time for Torah study I guess)
: he would answer all the questions with sevara. As such, I assume that
: he would be able to discredit any later authority who he disagreed with.

Isn't ZM an inyan of bucking rov, even if the zaqein is the greatest
chokham (thus the description "zaqein")?

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Life isn't about finding yourself
micha at aishdas.org        Life is about creating yourself.
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