Today’s daf TB Horayot 3 teaches that sometimes it’s good to share decision-making with other people. “Rav Huna, when he would go out to the court to sit in judgment, would bring ten tanna’im, i.e., people who recited mishnayot and baraitot in the study hall, to sit before him and serve as partners in judgment with him. He said: I do this so that we will each receive a splinter from the beam, i.e., each of us will bear only a small part of the responsibility. The Gemara relates on a similar note: Rav Ashi, when they would bring a slaughtered animal before him to determine whether or not it was a tereifa, would bring ten slaughterers from Mata Meḥasya and sit them before him while rendering his decision. He said: I do this so that we will each receive a splinter from the beam.” (Sefaria.org translation)
Even before
I studied this daf, I’ve learned this
lesson as a rabbi from experience. No decision will ever be accepted
universally. There will always be detractors who will be little the decision
and demean the one making him the decision.
I remember
once when I was a rabbi in Springfield, Massachusetts, I was tasked with
mounting a plaque. I told the board that I wanted a small committee to help me
decide because I wanted to share the responsibility of choosing a spot. I knew
that no matter where I hung the plaque, somebody would complain. By having a
small committee, I could claim it wasn’t my sole decision. The committee made
it.
One board
member scoffed at my reasoning and said I could do anything I wanted. I told
her that she was on my committee. Together we chose a spot in the front lobby
to mount that plaque. As we were hanging it on the wall, somebody walking by
told us that was a bad place and suggested we should have hung it somewhere
else. I looked at my board member, smiled, and said, “You see!”
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