Study Avodah Zarah folio 7A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
רבי מאיר אומר: נותן לו דמי צמרו. רבי יהודה אומר: אם השבח יתר על היציאה — נותן לו את היציאה, ואם היציאה יתירה על השבח — נותן לו את השבח.
R' Meir says: The dyer gives the owner of the wool the value of his wool. Since the dyer deviated from the owner’s wishes, he is considered akin to a robber who acquires the stolen item by changing it. Therefore, like a robber he keeps the changed item and pays the owner its original value. R' Yehuda says: The dyer does not acquire the wool; rather, the owner of the wool must reimburse the dyer for his expenses, without losing out himself. If the value of the enhancement, i.e., the enhanced value of the wool, exceeds the dyer’s expenses, the owner of the wool gives the dyer the expenses. And if the expenses exceed the enhancement, he gives him the value of the enhancement.
אהדרינהו רב יוסף לאפיה. בשלמא הלכה כרבי יהושע בן קרחה איצטריך, סלקא דעתך אמינא: יחיד ורבים הלכה כרבים, קא משמע לן הלכה כיחיד.
Rav Yosef turned his face away to demonstrate his displeasure with Rav Huna’s comment. The Talmud explains why Rav Yosef was unhappy: Granted, his ruling that the halakha is in accordance with the opinion of R' Yehoshua ben Korḥa was necessary, as it might enter your mind to say that because this is a dispute between an individual and the many, the halakha should be in accordance with the opinion of the many, not in accordance with R' Yehoshua ben Korḥa. Rav Huna therefore teaches us that in this case the halakha is in accordance with R' Yehoshua ben Korḥa despite the fact that he is an individual.
אלא הלכה כרבי יהודה למה לי? פשיטא, דמחלוקת ואחר כך סתם — הלכתא כסתם.
But why do I need the statement that the halakha is in accordance with the opinion of R' Yehuda? It is obvious that this is the case, as there is a well-known principle that whenever there is a dispute in a Mishnah and afterward one opinion is presented as the ruling of an unattributed Mishnah, i.e., without attribution to a particular Sage or that the ruling is subject to debate, the halakha is in accordance with the opinion presented in the unattributed Mishnah.