[Avodah] Kamtza Bar Kamtza - How Much Are The Rabbis to Blame?

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Jul 11, 2023 at 09:41:12AM +1000, Rabbi Meir G. Rabi via Avodah wrote:
> The Rabbis placating Agrippa - You ARE our brother, Sota 41
> and the terrible consequences the Gemara discusses there

There is also the silance of the Rabbanim who were at the anonymous
host's party and didn't do enough to stop Bar Qamtza's humiliation. The
medrash's version has it the same R Zekhariah ben Avqulus the gemara
(Gittin 55b) says refused to allow an animal with a mum on the mizbeiach.

The story is interrupted for this editorializing:

    Amar R' Yochanan:
    Anvanuso shel R Zekhariah be Avqulus
    hecherivah es beiteinu
    vesaraf es Heikhaleinu
    vehiglisanu meiArtzeinu.

Blame is CLEARLY laid at the leadership's feet. Even though this gemara
illustrates the sin'as chinam that Yuma (9b, and Y-mi 1:1 too)  said led
to the qorban, attention is drawn elsewhere.

...
> The Maharsha seems to suggest they were technically correct  - the sin had
> already been violated because the prohibition is to APPOINT, and he seems
> to be implying there was/is no duty to dismiss Agrippa - so they indicated
> Agrippa need not fear, they will NOT dismiss him,

And not allowing the mum was also technically correct. And someone who
refuses the mantal of leader will follow black letter law, be machmir
when there is none, and not rely on his own seikhel.

I think Chazal are clear at blaming failures in the general culture on
failures of its leadership.

Anvanuso deRav Zekhariah ben Avqulus... Being an anvan doesn't mean being
to scared to pasqen when a pesaq is needed or to teach about the ills
of sin'as chinam when a mussar shmuess is needed.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Education is not the filling of a bucket,
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   but the lighting of a fire.
Author: Widen Your Tent                   - W.B. Yeats
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF