Thursday, November 08, 2007

Kesubos 69a - Title "Rabbi"

The gemara says that when R' Anan sent a message to R' Huna and refered to him as "Huna our friend", R' Huna was offended and responded by forcing R' Sheishes to refer to R' Anan as "Anan, Anan". It is clear from the gemara that R' Huna was justified since he was greater than R' Anan and should not have been referred to as "Huna, our friend".
The Ya'avetz asks, even if R' Huna placed a shamta on R' Sheishes to speak to R' Anan with tremendous chutzpah, R' Sheishes should not be bound to keep such a shamta. Even one who was told by a king to violate the Torah, would not listen; here also, it is a violation of kavod chachamim and R' Sheishes should not have listened (he even goes so far to say that the shamta should not even be binding). In the course of his question he points out that it is true that there are those who don't need titles i.e. moshe, ahron...., because "greater than the title "Rebbi" is his name", but once it became proper to use titles it would be wrong for R' Sheishes to refer to R' Anan without a title, and certainly where his whole intent is to degrade him?
Perhaps since R' Sheishes gave a whole hakdama that the words he is about to say is a direct quote from R' Huna, it is the equivalent of delivering a letter written directly by R' Huna to R' Anan and R' Sheishes himself wasn't expressing any chutzpah.

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