What made the gmara willing to say 7b Chochomim in mishna was NH as a deechuii but unwilling to say NH was the Chochomim who said Tzerachav in Shome'a Tefilah?
Daniel Gray , Canada
Shalom Daniel,
Thank you for the interesting question.
In the Avodah Zarah discussion, the "Nishtake'a ha'Davar" clause about Nachum ha'Madi is already stated explicitly as a given. Once the Gemara records that Nachum's teaching was formally suppressed, reading Chachamim Basra'ei as a separate group creates difficulty, because it is unlikely that the we can say "Nishtake'a ha'Davar v'Lo Ye'amer" if Nachum ha'Madi still enjoyed explicit support from additional Tana'im. The simplest resolution is to understand that those Chachamim are really Nachum ha'Madi himself in another formulation.
With Sho'el Adam Tzerachav in Berachos, no "Nishtake'a ha'Davar" clause appears. The ruling is presented positively and accepted in Halachah, so there is no need to identify the Chachamim there with a single sage. Lacking such textual pressure, the straightforward reading is that "Chachamim" refers to a consensus rather than to Nachum ha'Madi alone.
Kol Tuv,
Aharon Steiner