Bava Basra 21a: If a new children’s rebbe comes to town who can teach better than the current rebbe, we fire the current rebbe and replace him with the new one.

Rema Yoreh Deah 245:22: This is only true of a children’s rebbe, but if someone has a chazaka to be the rav of a town, and a greater rav moves in, we do not replace him.

בבא בתרא כא ע”א: ואמר רבא: האי מקרי ינוקי דגריס, ואיכא אחרינא דגריס טפי מיניה ־ לא מסלקינן ליה, דלמא אתי לאיתרשולי. רב דימי מנהרדעא אמר: כ״ש דגריס טפי, קנאת סופרים תרבה חכמה.

יו”ד רמ”ה, כב ברמ”א: מי שהוחזק לרב בעיר אפילו החזיק בעצמו באיזה שררה אין להורידו מגדולתו אע״פ שבא לשם אחר גדול ממנו (ריב״ש סימן רע״א).

In 1966, Harav Moshe Feinstein received a shailah from Yitzchak Pfizer, the president of Young Israel of Oceanside. The custom in that shul was that anyone getting an aliyah on Shabbos or Yom Tov morning would walk down from the bima, go to the rabbi’s seat and get a bracha of yasher koach from the rabbi. But there were a few people who didn’t like this custom and decided to go straight to their seats after their aliyah, because they didn’t approve of the rabbi or didn’t feel he was deserving of such an honor. The shul president asked Reb Moshe what to do about these individuals.

Reb Moshe responded that it is forbidden to discontinue such a custom without permission from the rabbi, and as long as the custom is in effect, no one may violate it. It’s like a monetary obligation that everyone in the kehilah has accepted upon themselves.

As proof, he brings the Yerushalmi at the end of Horayos (19b), cited by the Gra in his comment on Yoreh Deah 245:22 (number 37 in the Gra’s comments). The Yerushalmi says that there were two families, the family of Bar Hoshia and the family of Bar Pazi, who used to go and greet the Nasi every day. The Bar Hoshia family went in first because they were more respectable. Then the Bar Pazi family married into the Nasi’s family, and they felt that from now on, they should go first. They came and they asked Rav Ami what to do. Rav Ami replied based on a pasuk (Shemos 26:30), “And you shall erect the Mishkan according to its law.” Is there then a law for wood? – This means that a board that was placed on the north side should always be placed on the north side, and a board that was placed on the south side should always be placed on the south side. In the same way, the family who was accustomed to be the first to greet the Nasi retains that right as a chazaka.

This relates to the Rema in that same place, who says that when someone has a chazaka to be the rav of a town, the kehilah may not fire him (unless he was hired on contract for a specific amount of time), even if a greater rabbi comes to town. Rav Moshe viewed denial of a privilege to the rav as if it were a partial firing of the rav, taking away something that he has a chazaka to receive. Besides, even a regular local custom should not be violated, and certainly not this one, which involves respect for the rav and, by extension, respect for all talmidei chachomim and Torah learners.

Therefore, Reb Moshe ruled that those individuals who refused to comply with the custom are not allowed to receive an aliyah. He ended with his hopes that when everyone acts according to halacha, there should be peace in Oceanside.

Source: Igros Moshe YD 2:99

Bava Basra 111a: Rabbi Yehuda Nesiah asked Rabbi Yannai: From where do we derive that a son takes precedence over a daughter in inheriting their mother’s property? He replied: The Torah says, “Any daughter who inherits property from tribes” – this equates the tribe of the mother with the tribe of the father. Just as when inheriting from a father, the son precedes the daughter, so too when inheriting from a mother, the son precedes the daughter. Rabbi Yehuda Nesiah asked: If so, perhaps the firstborn son should take a double portion of his mother’s property, just as he takes a double portion of his father’s. Rabbi Yannai said to his servant, who was leading him, “Pull me away – this man doesn’t want to learn.”

בבא בתרא קיא ע”א: בעא מיניה: מנין לבן שקודם לבת בנכסי האם? אמר ליה, דכתיב: מטות, מקיש מטה האם למטה האב, מה מטה האב ־ בן קודם לבת, אף מטה האם ־ בן קודם לבת. א״ל: אי מה מטה האב ־ בכור נוטל פי שנים, אף מטה האם ־ בכור נוטל פי שנים. אמר ליה לשמעיה: גוד, לית דין צבי למילף.

Reb Elchonon Wasserman, in Kovetz Shiurim on this Gemara, gives two possible approaches.

1. “This man doesn’t want to learn” from me, because he surely knows the answer already, and is just troubling me with unnecessary questions.
2. “This man doesn’t want to learn” on his own. He genuinely doesn’t know the answer, but if he were to work at it himself, he would figure it out, as Chazal say, “If a person claims he did not work hard and yet understands the Torah, do not believe him.” Understanding the Torah always takes work. Out of laziness, he is asking me.

Reb Elchonon prefers the second approach. Indeed, in his own learning Reb Elchonon exemplified this trait. When learning in Telshe under Reb Shimon Shkop, Reb Elchonon did not burden his rebbe with ordinary, simple questions. First he would seek to follow the implications of every explanation to its very end, in order to understand the plain meaning of the text in depth, not merely superficially. He would never submit a question to Reb Shimon before having pondered at length himself and failed to find the answer.

And that was quite often. Rebbetzin Shkop related later: “All the Telshe yeshiva bochurim who were attached to Reb Shimon and would come to the house at all odd times caused me distress, but I suffered most from the Boisker (Reb Elchonon) who would not leave him, and even would come and ask questions when Reb Shimon was resting.”

Source:  Reb Elchonon (Artscroll), p. 27

[What is fascinating is that immediately after this story, the Gemara tells of three Amoraim – Abaye, Rav Nachman bar Yitzchok, and Rava – who try to answer the question. The first two answers are refuted and only Rava’s answer stands. It seems the answer was not so obvious after all! Clearly the Gemara wants to demonstrate just how far one must go with his own reasoning to answer a question before presenting it to his rebbe.]

Bava Basra 21a: Jealousy of scholars leads to more scholarship.

בבא בתרא כא ע”א: קנאת סופרים תרבה חכמה

A couple once came to Rabbi Shmuel Berenbaum with a question: the wife wanted to buy an expensive luxury car, but the husband was worried that this might give rise to jealousy and ayin hara. Reb Shmuel lifted his eyes from the sefer he was learning and asked the man a seemingly unrelated question, “Do you already know Nashim and Nezikin?” “The rosh yeshiva sees that I don’t sit and learn all day,” the man replied. “Do you know at least one masechta well?” asked Reb Shmuel. “No,” said the man softly. “Do you know at least one daf Gemara by heart?” The man lowered his eyes and admitted, “Unfortunately, although I try to be kovea itim for Torah, I don’t learn it well enough to know the Gemara by heart.” “If so,” Reb Shmuel said, “you have nothing to worry about. You can buy the car – no one has anything to be jealous of you for.”

[We know that there are two types of jealousy: jealousy of physical possessions, which is wrong and may cause ayin hara, and jealousy of someone else’s Torah accomplishments, which is good and admirable, as our Gemara says, and will not lead to ayin hara. In this story, it seems that Reb Shmuel was not afraid of jealousy of the first kind – he assumed people are above that level. But what if the man had replied that he was a talmid chacham who knew Shas? Why then would Reb Shmuel have told him not to buy the car? If people are above jealousy of a car, why would they suddenly be jealous of it if he knew Shas? And if people would be jealous of him for knowing Shas, then good – קנאת סופרים תרבה חכמה!

The answer, explained Rabbi Elya Boruch Finkel (Mishulchan R’ Eliyahu Boruch, Parshas Vayikra) is that there is a third type of jealousy: jealousy of another person’s Torah accomplishments or mitzvos that he was able to do because Hashem granted him more money or a better mind. This, says the Ibn Ezra, is why the Torah says that the middle level of a קרבן עולה ויורד is to bring both a chatas and an olah – unlike the wealthy man, who brings only a chatas. The olah is to atone for the sinner’s thoughts of envy toward the wealthy sinner, who has the means to bring a nicer korban. But why wasn’t he envious of his possessions until now? The answer is that we don’t assume he is on such a low level. It doesn’t bother him that someone else has a nicer house or car. But it does bother him that he has a nicer korban.

Reb Shmuel’s point was that it’s good to be jealous of someone for knowing Shas, because that will motivate you to learn better. But if you see a man driving a luxury car who knows Shas, you might think, “The only reason he has time to sit and learn so much is because he has money. If I had money I would also become a talmid chacham.” That is the wrong kind of jealousy, the kind that might cause ayin hara.]