As we know, the Gemara is replete with over 300 disagreements between Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai. However, what we often forget is that while these two schools disagreed on many fundamental aspects of Jewish law, the fact is – as noted in today’s daf (Yevamot 14a) – that בית שמאי מחדדי טפי, meaning that ‘Beit Shammai were [intellectually] sharper’, which implies that their method of halachic analysis was more rigorous than that of Beit Hillel, while in contrast we are told that בית הלל רובא – ‘Beit Hillel were of greater number’ [and were thus a majority when being contrasted with Beit Shammai]’.
For Rav Yosef Engel in his Gilyonei HaShass (on Yevamot 14a), this debate touches on the question of whether we make decisions on the quantity of voices on a given issue (בתר רוב הכמות) or on the quality of voices on a given issue (בתר רוב האיכות), and the very fact that we are taught in Eruvin 13b that we rule like Beit Hillel, it would seem that we should determine our actions on the quantity rather than the quality of what has been said or ruled.
However, as Rav Engel then proceeds to explain, this is not so simple because – as should be obvious – Beit Hillel were also sharp, and this is why when addressing the law of following the majority (see Shemot 23:2), the Sefer HaChinuch writes (in Mitzvah 78) that: ‘this choice of the majority appears to be when the two opposing groups are equally known for their Torah wisdom – for it cannot be said that a small group of sages would not be decisive against a great group of ignoramuses…But with approximately equal wisdom, the Torah informed us that the many opinions will always conform to the truth more than the minority’. Significantly, Rabbi Yosef Babad, the author of the Minchat Chinuch, notes that this statement of the Sefer HaChinuch is based on our Gemara.
What this means that while today’s daf appears to indicate that we follow Beit Hillel because they are the majority, if we actually read between the lines we come to the conclusion – which, it should be noted, is a conclusion already made explicit in the Torah (see Shemot 23:2) – that we shouldn’t always follow the majority especially when the majority do not possess comparable wisdom to the minority.
As such, decisions should be made with an awareness of quantity (כמות) but also with a sensitivity to quality (איכות); with a consideration of what is the majority, but also with an awareness of the qualities of the majority – especially when being compared with the minority.
