EXOD776 [Rabbi Eliezer] retorted to them: “If the ruling is with me-- it will be proved from heaven.” A Heavenly Voice resounded and it said: “What do you want from R. Eliezer? The rulings agree with him everywhere.” R. Joshua stood to his feet and said: “It is not in Heaven.” What does “It is not in heaven” mean? R. Jeremiah said: “The Torah was already given at Mount Sinai. We don't consider the Heavenly Voice. It was already written at Mount Sinai in the Torah, “Incline to the majority” (Exodus 23:2). R. Nathan met Elijah and said to him: “What did the Holy One, Blessed be He, do in that hour?” He said to him: “He laughed, and he said, ‘My children have defeated me, my children have defeated me.’” [Baba Metsia 59b] Eliezer battles with the others about the oven [of Akhnai-AJL], arguing with ‘supernatural’ evidence. He finally summons a Heavenly Voice that the other sages reject as well. But the sages argue that the Torah is given to human interpreters, and thus the “author’ has no longer any privilege in interpreting it. The story continues, with God delighted to be beaten in argument by the sages. But the story appears in the context of the topic of what is oppressed with words, because Eliezer is then excommunicated and is thus oppressed. The details are worth pursuing (Chapter 9). The responsibilities, even in winning the argument against Eliezer, are so extreme that his loss causes others’ deaths.