The meforshim focus on defending and rationalizing The actions of Rav Eliezer. Little attention seems to be paid to the Ish Mechuar. The Eyun Yaakov seems to suggest that at first he relied on a principle that torah is not found in ugly poeple and then corrected himself. Can one interpret that to mean that the gemorah is teaching us that people --even torah people --can fall into the trap of stereotyping people?
Binyamin Lebovits, Chicago,Il,USA
It seems to me that the key to this Gemara lies in the statement that R. Elazar b'R. Shimon was feeling vain because he had learned a lot of Torah.
Two points - firstly, the commentaries, commenting on the Tefilah (in 'Hashkiveinu' that we say in Ma'ariv) 'And remove the Satan from before us and from behind us' explain that not only does the Satan try to make us sin before we perform a Mitzvah (by stopping us from doing it in the first place), but in the event that he fails there, he tries to make us sin after we have performed it, by filling us with pride at our great achievement.
Secondly, Midos (character-traits), as the commentaries also say, form the basis of our Torah observance. Even Moshe Rabeinu 'sinned', on a number of occasions say Chazal, because he became angry, and 'anger leads to error'.
Consequently, whether we explain R. Elazar's mistake like the Ein Ya'akov, or we explain it like the Maharsha, (that he mistook the man for a Nochri from Kushi, where most are people are relatively ugly (which is forbidden in any case), the fact remains that when a person becomes conceited, no matter who, he are prone to sin.
What is important is:
a. It is rare for Talmidei-Chachamim to fail in Midos, and
b. When they do, they are prepared to admit their mistake on the spot and rectify it (like David Hamelech did after he sinned with bas-Sheva).
R. Eliezer Chrysler