The Oven of Akhnai is a Talmudic story found in Bava Metzia 59a-b which is set around the early 2nd century CE.
In the Talmud, the story is told after a discussion of being careful not to mistreat a person and the power of prayers which are said in pain to be heard by God.
In the course of the rabbinic disagreement, the story expresses differing views of the nature of law and authority, concerns over a fractured and divisive community, and the issue of harming another person through words and actions.
A new type of oven is brought before the Sanhedrin, consisting of tiles separated from one another by sand, but externally plastered over with cement.
When none of Rabbi Eliezer's arguments convince his colleagues, he cries out, "If the halakha is in accordance with my opinion, this carob tree will prove it."
Rabbi Joshua's response expresses the view that the work of Law is a work of human activity; the Torah is not a document of mystery which must have its innate meaning revealed by a minority, but it is instead a document from which law must be created through the human activity of debate and consensus – in quoting Deuteronomy, Joshua shows that the Torah itself supports this legal theory.
As such, Rabbi Eliezer's miraculous appeals represent a differing legal theory and were outside of proper jurisprudence which meant that they would not be followed.
In the backdrop of the story is the status of Judaism prior to Rabban Gamaliel and the views that developed among the late Pharisaic or early Rabbinic Jews.
[1] According to Vered Noam, Rabbi Eliezer sought to reveal an innate halakhah based on revelation and he did not accept proper jurisprudence.
In contrast, Rabban Gamaliel and the other rabbis sought to create halakhah through human reason and utilizing proper jurisprudence.
Rabbi Eliezer expresses a differing philosophy regarding halakhah and a rejection of following the jurisprudence upon which a cohesive community relies.
The dispute is not simply over an oven, but this is a story which reflects two conflicting ideas over the nature of law and possibilities for destabilizing of the community.
Rabban Gamaliel may have had the correct intentions and his philosophies which were necessary for sustaining his community may have won out, yet he still hurt his colleagues through his words and decisions.
[3] Scholar Jeffrey Rubenstein has argued that the Oven of Akhnai focuses on the fact that the majority need to take charge over the minority, but in a way that it is fair to all.
Geoarchaeologist Beverly Goodman and historian Henry Abramson theorize that the events mentioned in the story are a mythologized version of the effects of a tsunami in the area caused by the 115 Antioch earthquake.