If my mother cut up a chicken and found something wrong in it,--some hurt or mark that should not be,--she sent the housemaid with it to the rav, and I ran along, and saw the rav look in his big books; and whatever he decided was right.

If he called the chicken "trefah" I must not eat of it; no, not if I had to starve.

And the rav knew about everything: about going on a journey, about business, about marrying, about purifying vessels for Passover.
Another great teacher was the dayyan, who heard people's quarrels and settled them according to the Law, so that they should not have to go to the Gentile courts.

The Gentiles were false, judges and witnesses and all.

They favored the rich man against the poor, the Christian against the Jew.