many of the posters are giving excellent reasons to justify this mishneh and gemoro and I will not comment upon the merits of this gemoro (I am all for it) but I just want to point out how some posters are very selective in their quotes.”Nat” quotes a “tiferes yisroel” on mishnayos to “explain” this gemoro in a way different from its plain meaning. OK- if the tiferes yisroel (a magnificent commentary, by the way)is so authoritative, do you follow his line of thinking as far as the creation of the world? if you don’t know what he says about, look at his “drush ohr hachaim’ at the end of nezikin. If you follow his line of reasoning on this, you may very well be thrown out of yeshiva nowadays.
My point is not to enter into polemics on this but to show that every person here is very selective in what he quote and follows. Let people decide on what their minhag is and don’t excoriate them if someone has a different view. It may be equally valid.