Horayot 3: Responsibility: Judges, Communities, etc.

The rabbis continue their conversation about responsibility.  When the beit din errs in its judgement and a person follows the beit din, is he liable?  If he does not follow the ruling of the beit din, is he liable for not following their ruling?  While the rabbis are clear in their exoneration of the individual, they question what should happen when a group of people are involved.  Are none of them liable?  What if the beit din is comprised of dozen of Sages, but only one person disagrees with the ruling.  Is that judge excluded from liability, as well, when his colleagues are held responsible for their error?

What about representation of the Jewish people?  The rabbis wonder about a majority of Jews, and what this might mean.  Perhaps we are only counting Jews in HaAretz, for example.  Further, the rabbis consider what should happen if a majority becomes a minority or if a minority becomes a majority because people leave or die.  The rabbis then discuss communal error.  A bull is the proper offering for a communal error.  Even so, the rabbis decide that all judges must have made the error to warrant a communal offering.   Rabbi Yehoshua argues that all ten judges must have erred if they are claiming personal responsibility (and thus a communal offering, together) for the error.  

A new mishna is introduced.   It outlines what might happen if a person were to carry out the original wishes of the beit din - but does so after their ruling has been retracted.   Perhaps this person should be exempt.  Or perhaps he should be exempt but only if he were travelling and thus not privy to notice about the beit din's new ruling.  The rabbis suggest a number of cases where a person might have been at home (and thus should have known about the retracted ruling).   We are introduced to a number of different errors.  One regards the determination of a woman's ritual status that should have left her untouched.  

So many thoughts are introduced along with the pshat, the basic reading of this text.  How reliant were people on their rabbis to help them function every day?  Were people prone to taking on personal responsibility for things that were not their fault?  Or were people similar to most of us today?  We certainly feel more comfortable assuming communal responsibility than personal responsibility!  And how many rabbis might check a woman's bedikah cloth to determine her status?!