Page 418 - EFI-RAV ZILBERSTIN_VOL 8.EFI-RAV ZILBERSTIN_VOL 8.1A

Pg: 418 - 14-Back 21-10-31

mon advised one of the king’s ministers about how to catch robbers.
The king heard about his good advice and entrusted him with the task
of catching robbers. The gemara relates,“They brought Rabbi Elazar
bar Rabbi Shimon and he would catch robbers. Rabbi Yehoshua ben
Korcha sent him a message: ‘Vinegar, son of wine! Until when are
you going to hand our G-d’s people over to be killed?’ Rabbi Elazar
responded, ‘I am destroying the thorns from the vineyard.’ Rabbi
Yehoshua replied, ‘Let the owner of the vineyard come and destroy
his [own] thorns.’ Rabbi Yishmael bar Rabbi Yosi too was in the same
situation [i.e. he was also appointed by the king to catch robbers]
and Eliyahu Hanavi said to him, ‘Until when are you going to hand
our G-d’s people over to be killed?’ He told him,‘What can I do; this
is the king’s bidding.’ He told him, ‘Your father fled from the king to
Asia. You should defect to Laodicea.’”

The passage seems astounding – how could these holy Tannaim
hand Jewish robbers over to be hanged, when the Torah doesn’t man-
date the death penalty for a robber? How could they deliver them over
to a gentile king who sentenced them to death without a sanhedrin?

The Rashba has discussed this question. (He is cited by the Beis
Yosef, Choshen Mishpat, 388.) He writes that a king is allowed to
judge and accept the testimony of relatives and the confession of the
defendant himself and is allowed to punish without any warning hav-
ing been given,“for if you do not say so… but you operate everything
according to Torah law, according to laws of the Sanhedrin, the world
would be desolate because murderers and their fraternity would mul-
tiply.”

The Rashba continues, “Moreover, Rabbi Elazar bar Rabbi Shi-
mon caught robbers at the king’s behest and punished them, as did
Rabbi Yishmael bar Rabbi Yosi, and even though Rabbi Yehoshua
ben Korcha called him ‘Vinegar, son of wine’ and Eliyahu spoke sim-
ilarly to Rabbi Yishmael bar Rabbi Yosi, they did not consider them
as being utterly wrong in regard to explicit laws, rather in view of
their piety they did they should have refrained from imposing pun-
ishment that the Torah does not mandate. This is why they called
them ‘Vinegar, son of wine,’ to convey that they were not maintaining

402 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein