Reply To: right or left

Menachem, this seems to be saying – also listen to a shofet, even if he is not so much chacham? Yiftah?

Smerel, it is a good point about machlokes. Maybe, this is what Rashi and others presume without saying so explicitly – that we are discussing open communal behaviors, not private matters (as is the overall theme of the psukim around this).

Even in public matters, there might be ways to hold your own, without causing a machlokes. I once heard a Talmid Chacham talking at a conference for a certain social problem. He described what he does and then pointed to the head of a bigger organization sitting on the panel and said – Rav suggested that we join our efforts, but I prefer to run my own for which I can be fully responsible. That is, he clearly disagreed on something, but did not want to publicize the disagreement, just the fact that his group is doing things the way he thinks is kosher.