When Tosafos or other Rishonim introduce a question with the phrase "and if it were said" (my translation) do they mean to imply that the question is b'dieved and everything would make more sense if we left well enough alone?
Examples of gemaras where this may be the case include bava basra 2a-177d.
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closed as too localized by msh210♦ Feb 28 at 18:41
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This is a common misunderstanding dating back to medieval publishers. Do not read it: ואם תאמר, rather: וא"מ תאמר. That is, ואשת מנוח תאמר ("And the wife of Manoach [Samson's mother] will say"). After forgetting to mention anything about hair to her husband (and thereby setting up the downfall of one of the great saviors of the Jews), Eishet Manoach is cast out by her husband. This is clear because Shimshon is buried "in the burial place of Manoach, his father". His father, and not his mother. Tradition has it (Bava How Kamma 35b) that Eishet Manoach spent the rest of her life bothering scholars in the beit midrash. She wanted to marry again, and to marry a bocher to make up for her failure to raise a bookish child. However, most of the bocherim took an ego hit when a peasant woman spoke Torah, so she would play dumb. She would ask questions that most people would be able to easily answer. Sometimes she'd raise objections, but only if she knew the person making the point could easily retort. The term "eishet Manoach will say" became known and best translates to "a strawman would say". |
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Whenever they want to raise a question that they can immediately refute, the Tosafists introduce it with "ואם תאמר, and a mother would say" (and they refute the question with "ואיש לומר, and a man is to reply", corrupted in some versions to "ויש לומר"). |
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This is dependent on the question whether mitzvos require kavanah (Brachos 13a). We hold that they do. However, from the fact that Tosfos use the language "ואם תאמר," it is clear that they hold that they don't. |
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One should lechatchila as such a question as one it is based on false information and is thereby megaleh panim shelo kehalacha. If one did (becoming a heretic), Tosfos must assist us in fulfilling the dictum of the Mishna - know what to answer to a heretic |
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