The rav knows nothing about meat. I ate meat every day. (Even in the Nine Days, I make sure to get to a siyum so that I can eat meat. On a fast day, I ate meat at night.) This has been my custom as long as I can remember. I am an authority when it comes to meat. And I can say confidently that there is no comparison at all between poultry and cattle meat. They are different in taste, texture, sight, and in several other ways. What do the rabbanim want from us?"
Whoever reads this story immediately says, "Woe to this person. Does he consider himself an equal to the chachamim, to feel confident that he can cancel their words when he doesn't understand something? Chazal understood that people will make mistakes and confuse meat with chicken, and therefore they forbade it. Who is he to disagree?
Everyone understands this. So, why, when it comes to the gezeiros and takanos that are established in this generation, do people consider themselves wiser than the chachamim?
Shem MiShmuel (Moadim, last letter, written at the end of the sefer) writes, "You definitely remember what you heard from me several times. The primary Yiddishkeit is that a person must be batel (and to accept) the daas Torah of talmidei chachamim – even when they tell you that your left is your right. This attitude, to be batel to daas Torah is מהכל יותר שווה more valuable than anything else."
It states (32:24) לְצֹנַאֲכֶם וּגְד ֵרֹת לְטַפְּכֶם עָרִים לָכֶם בְּ נוּ, "Build yourselves cities for your children and enclosures for your sheep." וּגְד ֵרֹת alludes to the gedarim, gates that are erected to keep us far from aveiros. The Tzemech Tzaddik (Viznitz) zt'l explains that we learn from this pasuk that due to the gedarim, gates and boundaries, Klal Yisrael are called צאנכם, Hashem's sheep, מרעתי צאן.
Chazal say, "Whoever transgresses the words of Chachamim, is chayiv misah (deserves the death penalty)." Why are the rules of the chachamim so severe? It is because they are boundaries for the Torah.
Reb Yonason Eibshitz zt'l explains this with a mashal: if someone is speaking with the king, and he had permission to do so, and he suddenly spits in the king's face, he will be arrested immediately, but he won't be put to death. First, there will be a trial. However, if there are gates around the palace, and someone jumps over the barriers to get to the palace, he will be shot on the spot. No one knows where he is going and what he plans to do, so he is considered a grave danger, and he will be shot immediately. This is why it is so severe to transgress the takanos of Chazal. He is liable to fall very steeply, and he is in grave danger.
Unfortunately, this is prevalent in this generation. May Hashem protect us and our children, and lead us on the correct path.
