Parshas Ki Seitzei 5785
- Torah Tavlin
- Sep 5
- 3 min read
הוריות דף ג:
"אין גוזרין גזירה על הצבור אלא א"כ רוב הצבור יכולין לעמוד בה"
Our Gemara quotes רשב"ג ור"א בר' צדוק that we do not institute a גזרה on the צבור unless we determine that the majority of the צבור will be able to observe it. The מקור for this rule is from מלאכי פ"ג. The נביא admonishes כלל ישראל and says, although you have accepted upon yourselves to keep the halachos of מעשר for if not you would be subject to a קללה, since you haven’t kept your promise, you are now subject to the קללה. When this pasuk refers to כלל ישראל, they are referred to as "הגוי כולו", the entire nation. We see a גזירה needs הגוי כולו. We also assume [רשב"ם ב"ב ס:] if they took this גזירה upon themselves, it’s because they felt they could adhere to it. So, since we hold רובו ככולו, we must conclude: for a גזירה to be imposed, it must be יכולין לעמוד בה by the majority of the people.
The Mishnah [שבת יג:] relates: Once תלמידי ב"ש וב"ה went up to the attic of חנניה בן חזקיה בן גרון to visit him and on that day the תלמידי ב"ש outnumbered the תלמידי ב"ה and were able to institute 18 גזירות that day. The Gemara [ע"ז לו:] says that one of these גזירות was that שמן from a עכו"ם is אסור. This was instituted to prevent חתנות (assimilation). The Gemara clarifies that really דניאל was מתקן this גזרה earlier, but he had only prohibited using it in the city, but ב"ש had extended it to be אסור even בשדה, not only within the city. The Mishnah [שם לה:] says that later on, ר' יהודה הנשיא ובית דינו retracted this גזרה and permitted the use of oil from a goy. Since it was difficult to obtain oil from other places, this גזרה was never fully obeyed by the majority of כלל ישראל. Because of this, although the בית דין of רבי was not greater than ב"ש or ב"ה, he was able to abolish this גזרה, because he relied on the rule of אין גוזרין גזירה אלא א"כ רוב הצבור יכולין לעמוד בה.
The [ממרים פ"ב, ה"ה] רמב"ם says: Before ב"ד is גוזר a גזירה or מתקן a תקנה they must consider if רוב הצבור will be able to abide by it. If ב"ד is גוזר based on this assumption and they see that רוב הקהל is מפקפק and it has not caught on, then the גזירה is בטל and ב"ד may not enforce it. Furthermore, if a current ב"ד investigates and determines that a previous גזירה has not been accepted by the majority, they may be מבטל it even if they are inferior to the previous bais din בחכמה ובמנין. The רדב"ז says the source for this רמב"ם is the above story of גזירת דניאל and ב"ד של רבי.
The כסף משנה asks: How did רבי know that the גזירה on the שמן wasn’t accepted by the majority? Maybe at the time of the ראשונים it was accepted and only later did it lose acceptance? So we see that even if it was originally accepted, but over time people stopped obeying it, a later ב"ד may be מבטל it. However, he says that it’s משמע that רש"י learns that רבי investigated and found that it was never נתפשט even from the outset.
The Gemara [ב"ב ס:] says that after the חורבן בית שני the פרושין were נוהג אבילות and refrained from ever eating בשר ויין. ר' יהושע spoke to them said: To not mourn at all is not an option because it has already been decreed to mourn (רש"ש); to mourn excessively is not an option because אין גוזרין גזירה שאין רוב הצבור יכולין לעמוד בה; rather the proper way to mourn is when one plasters his home, he should leave a small area unplastered and a few other things as well. עיי"ש.