In reporting the opinions of Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel, the Talmud mentions Rabbi Meir, and continues with his story. Rabbi Meir initially came to study with Rabbi Akiva, but since Rabbi Akiva was a masterful logician, Rabbi Meir could never understand if his teacher was arguing a true point of view or just showing the logic of the opposite one. Therefore, Rabbi Meir went to Rabbi Ishmael, to get the facts straight, and then returned to Rabbi Akiva, and again learned the logic.
Rabbi Meir was a scribe, and to prevent the possibility of accidental erasure in the Torah – which could lead to great confusion, such as erasing the letter dalet slightly, making appear it is a resh, which would then spell not “God is one” but “another God” – he used indelible ink. His teacher told him to always use erasable ink, since there is a portion in the Torah, intended for a suspected wife, which one should erase in water, in preparing the test to remove suspicion.
Eventually Rabbi Meir himself became the leading Sage of his generation and now the other Sages could never ascertain whether he was arguing a true point of view, or a false one, just as convincingly. Since they could never fully understand him, they never established the law based on his opinion. Nevertheless, they benefited greatly from it, as he illuminated their eyes and minds with his reasoning. The student of Rabbi Meir, Sumchos, could present forty-eight reasons why a rat should be ritually impure and forty-eight reasons why it should be otherwise. Ravina attempted one, by comparing to a snake, but was disproved.
Art: B. Werner - Rabbis in a debate
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