More Discussions for this daf
1. The privileges of Maftir 2. Why does the father receive the Kavod before the Rebbe? 3. Torah Reading
4. Skipping in the Torah 5. Children in Minyan 6. Birchas Kohanim
DAF DISCUSSIONS - MEGILAH 24

Moshe Merrill asked:

The gemorah answers the question sort of but I have not yet been given the privelege to understand the question. The question is the following the gemorah discusses why the reason the person who does maftir is the same person is to avoid a fight. If you give the kavod to the father over the Rav that may stir contreversy. Why does the father recieve the honor before the Rebbe if the katan can't do it.

Moshe Merrill, Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel

The Kollel replies:

The Gemara does not actually say that there may be controversy between the father and the Rebbe. We will see, BS'D, that there is a good Halachic reason why the father comes before the Rebbe and the Rebbe will certainly understand this and will not complain.

TUREI EVEN writes that if the Katan read the Maftir, then if he has a father, the father has the honor to follow up by being the Chazan. If he has no father then the Rebbe gets this honor. The Mishnah mentions the father before the Rebbe from which Turei Even learns that the father precedes the Rebbe. The question is, "why is this different from the MISHNAH in BAVA METZIA 33a whuch states that a son should return the lost article of his Rebbe before he returns his father's, and similarly helps his Rebbe with his burden, or redeems his Rebbe from prison, before he does this for his father?"

Turei Even answers that the father being the Chazan instead of his son is similar to inheritance. Just as a father inherits his son if he dies in his lifetime (see MISHNAH BAVA BASRA 108a) and receives any lost article his son finds (see MISHNAH BAVA METZIA 12a), so also he receives the honor in Shul that accrues from his son. The Rebbe does not inherit his student or receive his findings so he does receive from him the honor of being Chazan either.

KOL TUV

D. Bloom

The Kollel adds:

Here is another explanation why the father is mentioned before the Rebbe in the Mishnah. This is because if the father is also a Talmid Chacham, then he comes before the Rebbe - with respect to returning him his lost property etc.- as the Mishnah in Bava Metzia 33a states.

According to our text in the Rambam Hilchos Talmud Torah 5:1, if the father is a Talmid Chacham, even though he is less distinguished than the Rebbe, nevertheless the father comes first. Even though many challenge this text (see the Hago'os Maimonios there #2 who writes that this is a scribe's error), nevertheless if the father is equal in wisdom to the Rebbe, everyone agrees that the father comes first (see the Shulchan Arukh YD 242:34).

In addition, the Rosh Bava Metzia 2:30 - even though he maintains that to return his "Avedah" etc. the father must be equal in wisdom to the Rebbe, - nevertheless writes that if they are both in captivity, the son should redeem the father before the Rebbe, even though the latter is a bigger Talmid Chacham.

One sees from the above, that at least if other things are equal, the father does possess the advantage over the Rebbe, because the father retains an intrinsic close relationship to the son. This is why our Mishnah mentioned the father first.

KOL TUV

D.Bloom