Shoftim: A Zaken Mamre

Rabbi Kanievsky famously called Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach a zaken mamre. I have to be honest, if anyone would ever call me that, it would be the deepest compliment I've ever heard. 

A zaken mamre isn't simply anyone who defies majority rule, like the Ramban said about the karaites. It's someone of such great stature that he has the power, charisma and authority to rip all of Judaism asunder by countering the rule of law, and possibly turning it in favor. 

After a halachic issue has been weighed, adjudicated and decided, a rabbi whose view has not been accepted can not undermine the majority by trying to call others over to his side, i.e. by ruling contrary to the majority. 

Why is the majority so important? Because the Torah states that you should follow the course set by the majority, regardless of whether it is right or wrong. And if, one, in his brazenness would not hearken to that majority, he would be ipso facto declaring that he doesn't accept Torat Moshe, the Torah given to us by God Himself that declares we are supposed to accept that which has reached a consensus to the extent possible. 

Now, a person like me could never be a zaken mamre; I wouldn't stand a chance. I wouldn't have a single follower, but if one were to have that clarity of purpose, intellectual prowess and ability to do the halachic equivalent of fomenting a coup d'état, it would strike at the ability of our people to survive. 

The person did everything right, he went to Sanhedrin, voiced his claims, the matters were weighed, and then - if even on that singular issue he would persist in voicing a claim to a monopoly on the truth, he would be far worse than a demagogue, but rather, could be like a cancer that metastasizes, using the body's very powers against it, like the leprosy, or tzara'at of biblical times.