Commentary for Rosh Hashanah 30:12

אלא אמר רבי אבא הכהן תמיהני אם השיבה ריש לקיש לתשובה זו אם השיבה הא אותבה אלא אימא אם קיבלה רבי יוחנן אם לא קיבלה:

Said R'Abba the priest to R'Jose: Why did he make no answer? He could have said to him, I give the view of R'Nehemiah, and you bring against me the view of the Rabbis! - [He could not have answered him thus], because Resh Lakish could have retorted: Do you abandon the Rabbis and follow R'Nehemiah? - But he could have said to him, I speak to you of the general custom, and you speak to me of a prohibition?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' The prohibition to determine the year by the plucking.');">⁹</span> - [He could not answer thus], because he could have said to him: Where a prohibition applies, even if there is a general custom, do we allow it? - But he could have said to him: I speak to you of the tithe of carobs, which is Rabbinical, and you speak to me of the Sabbatical year, which is Pentateuchal! - The truth is, said R'Abba the priest, I wonder whether Resh Lakish put this question. Whether he put this question? But we are distinctly told that he did so! - What R'Abba should say is, whether he [R'Johanan] admitted the difficulty or not.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I.e. , whether his silence was due to the fact that he had no answer, or to the fact that he thought it obvious that tithe of carobs, which is Rabbinical, could not be put on the same footing as produce of the Sabbatical year which is Pentateuchal.');">¹⁰</span>

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