Commentary for Avodah Zarah 13:2
אהדרינהו רב יוסף לאפיה בשלמא הלכה כרבי יהושע בן קרחה איצטריך ס"ד אמינא יחיד ורבים הלכה כרבים קא משמע לן הלכה כיחיד
Joseph turned his face away from R. Abba [and said]: It made sense [to state] that the halakhah is according to R. Joshua b. Karha for we might have said that where an individual disagrees with a majority, the halakhah is according to the majority, so he teaches us that here the halakhah is according to the individual.
Daf Shevui to Avodah Zarah
Joseph is angry at R. Abba, not because he said something wrong, but because he said something overly obvious. It was not obvious that the halakhah follows R. Joshua b. Korha, because his was a minority opinion. But it should be obvious that the halakhah follows R. Judah because of a different principle. If the mishnah quotes a dispute and then later quotes one of those opinions anonymously, the halakhah follows the anonymous opinion. The idea is that when composing the Mishnah, R. Judah Hanasi hinted at his own opinion by citing the anonymous voice, with which he agreed, last. As we shall see, this is one of those cases.
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