Explores how a mishnah presenting an individual opinion against the majority is decided in the context of selling a temurah (consecrated animal exchange). The Sfas Emes examines the relationship between the Mishnah's ruling and the underlying tannaitic dispute.
במתני׳ הוי סתם פלוגתא דיחיד ורבים ממילא הלכה כרבים
Opens as a working sheet — explore, annotate, and export.
שפת אמת על הש"ס, Temurah כ׳:א׳ (Temurah כ׳ ע״א) — ד"ה במשנה אי תמכר שלא במום
Sfas Emes al HaShas, Temurah 20a
The continuation of the Sfas Emes's discussion of the Mishnah's rule concerning an animal sold without a blemish, including the relationship between the Mishnah's alternatives and the underlying tannaitic dispute.
במשנה אי תמכר שלא במום. וכיון דבמתני' הוי סתם פלוגתא דיחידורבים ממילא הלכה כרבים.
Filed under: רבים
Filed under: תמורה
Filed under: יחיד: פוסקים
Filed under: Selling Chametz
Sources explore the halakhic principle that a court or communal body decides according to the majority opinion, grounded in Torah law and codified by Maimonides. The Sefat Emet applies this principle to specific Talmudic disputes, distinguishing between the exceptional path of the righteous and the binding practical law that follows the majority.
These passages from the Sfas Emes's commentary on Temurah explore how the halakhah is determined when the Mishnah and Gemara present disputes between individual sages and the Sages (majority). The sources examine the relationship between tannaitic disagreements and the principles by which later authorities rule according to the majority position.
The Sfas Emes addresses a Mishnaic ruling regarding the sale of consecrated animals without blemish, examining how a dispute between individual and majority opinions in the Mishnah is resolved according to halakhic principle.
Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinski examines whether a designation of an animal as a shelamim can be retracted or qualified within toch kdei dibbur by immediately declaring its offspring an olah instead. The sources explore the interplay between the Rambam's principle that hekdesh cannot be retracted and the narrow window of toch kdei dibbur, in which some halakhic acts may still be modified.
Sources from the Talmud and Rishonim explore the halakhic principle of meyuto demiyuto—a minority within a minority—and how compounded statistical rarity affects practical rulings on ritual status, impurity, and majority-based presumptions. The discussions range from skin conditions and food preparation to animal inspection, establishing frameworks for when such exceptional cases are or are not considered legally significant.
These sources explore the halakhic concept of peshara (compromise settlement), examining how it functions as a legitimate and often preferred judicial approach in civil disputes. The sources address the relationship between peshara and strict Din Torah, the role of the dayan (judge) in facilitating compromise, and the formal requirements such as kinyan needed to establish its binding authority.