For the source text click/tap here: Moed Katan 17
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We explore the notion of:
A Torah scholar may execute judgment for himself with regard to a matter about which he is certain, and this included Reb yehuda hanassi's maid!
The Gemara asks: What is the story mentioned by Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani involving the maidservant in the house of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi? It was related that the maidservant in Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi’s house saw a certain man who was striking his adult son. She said: Let that man be excommunicated, due to the fact that he has transgressed the injunction:
“You shall not place a stumbling block before the blind” as it is taught in a baraita that the verse states: “You shall not place a stumbling block before the blind,” and the verse speaks here of one who strikes his adult son, as the son is likely to become angry and strike his father back, thereby transgressing the severe prohibition against hitting one’s parent.
Rebbi’s maid was known to be a woman of unique intelligence and was truly God-fearing, to the extent that it was difficult to find someone with her qualities who could lift the ban. It should be noted that we find “the maid of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi” mentioned in other contexts in the Gemara.
In one case she is quoted offering interpretations to difficult words whose meaning escaped the Sages, explaining that these were words that she was familiar with from listening to the conversation in the home of her master.
We review her mentions in Talmud then present another maid who was a Rebbe in her own right....the Maidl from Ludmir.