Presence

Another good post from Mississippi Fred on mesorah vs. hochma.

I remember R. Alan Schwartz, in a Bible class in YU, explaining the concept of ain techina be'ochlin. The gemara in Shabbos states that there is no prohibition of grinding food on Shabbos. Later on, the gemara states that grinding silka is prohibited. Rashi translates silka as beets. The contradiction leads to a long discussion amongst the Achronim, concluding with the halacha as we have it, which is that some food is prohibited, some permissible (my apologies for not citing sources).

R. Schwartz related that a recently discovered alternate manuscript of Rashi translated silka not as beets, but as wood chips. This, of course, would remove any contradiction between the two gemaras, and do away with several seifim in Shulchan Aruch.

Some time later (it was Purim, if I remember correctly), I asked R. Schachter if the discovery of the different translation made any difference in terms of halacha. He answered that it did not, and he was quite definite about it (I asked the question out of pure curiosity, not with any agenda; it wasn't until many months later that I fully understood why he was so emphatic).