Do Gedolei Yisrael make mistakes?

In practical halacha,
is it forbidden to suspect that there may be mistakes in the rulings of the leading rabbis of our generation,
for the Haredi members of Knesset and for the Haredi public?

I have read claims that one must not suspect this, based on the following five points:
1] "פלגי מים לב מלך ביד ה' על כל אשר יחפץ יטנו" (Mishlei 21:1 — "Like streams of water, the heart of the king is in the hand of Hashem; wherever He desires, He turns it").
And we say: "מאן מלכי? רבנן!" — "Who are the kings? The Sages!"
2] "בהמתן של צדיקים אין הקב"ה מביא תקלה על ידן, צדיקים עצמן לא כל שכן" (Talmud Bavli, Chullin 5b — "The Holy One, blessed be He, does not cause mishap even through the animals of the righteous — how much more so through the righteous themselves").
3] "ותגזר אמר ויקם לך ועל דרכיך נגה אור" (Iyov 22:28 — "You shall decree a matter, and it will be established for you, and light will shine upon your ways").
Hence the expression: "צדיק גוזר והקב"ה מקיים" — "A righteous person decrees and the Holy One, blessed be He, fulfills."
4] "קסם על שפתי מלך במשפט לא ימעל פיו" (Mishlei 16:10 — "Divination (a Divine utterance) is on the lips of the king; in judgment his mouth will not betray").
"קסם על שפתי מלך" — "on the lips of the wise man who sits in judgment" (Rashi’s commentary to this verse).
And the Gra (Vilna Gaon) in his commentary to Mishlei writes:
"קסם על שפתי מלך" — the speech of the king is like a "kesem" (prophetic oracle),
because although others try to deceive him, his judicial ruling is true.
And that is "במשפט לא ימעל פיו" — "in judgment his mouth will not betray,"
for "מאן מלכי? רבנן!" — "Who are the kings? The Sages!"
5] "על פי התורה אשר יורוך ועל המשפט אשר יאמרו לך תעשה לא תסור מן הדבר אשר יגידו לך ימין ושמאל" (Devarim 17:11 — "According to the Torah that they shall teach you and the judgment that they shall tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside from the matter that they tell you, to the right or to the left").
"ימין ושמאל" — "even if they tell you that right is left and left is right; all the more so when they tell you that right is right and left is left" (Rashi ad loc.).

But I thought that it is permissible to fear that there may be error, based on the following nine points:

1] The very halachic possibility of an obligation to bring a "פר העלם דבר של ציבור" — the bull offering for an erroneous ruling of the community.
"Par he‘elem davar shel tzibbur" is a sin‑offering (korban chatat) of the inner‑sin‑offering type,
brought by the Sanhedrin and the community
in a case where the Sanhedrin erred in a halachic ruling
and permitted a forbidden act for which, if done intentionally, the punishment is karet (spiritual excision),
and through their ruling the majority of the Jewish public living in Eretz Yisrael stumbled into that sin inadvertently.
In such a case, each individual in the community is not obligated to bring his own chatat;
rather the community or the court brings a bull as a chatat.
If the erroneous ruling caused the community to transgress the prohibition of idolatry,
they must bring a goat as a chatat, and together with it a bull as an olah (burnt‑offering).
Is there any source that this law was not meant to be applied in practice,
but is only "derosh veqabel sakhar" — "expound and receive reward"?

2] Moshe Rabbeinu saved Michah,
even though he was told that Michah was wicked,
and Michah actively contributed to the making of the Golden Calf.
Sources:
"אמר לו משה להקב"ה: אתה הרעות לעם הזה, שעכשיו אם אין להם לבנים, משימין בניהם של ישראל בבנין?
אמר לו הקב"ה: קוצים הם מכלין. שגלוי לפני, אילו הם חיים היו רשעים [גמורים], ואם תרצה תנסה והוציא אחד מהן.
הלך והוציא את מיכה" (Talmud Bavli, Sanhedrin 101b — "Moshe said to the Holy One, blessed be He: ‘You have done evil to this people — now if they have no bricks, they are placing the sons of Israel into the building [as human bricks]?’ He said to him: ‘They are thorns, I am destroying them. It is revealed before Me that if they remain alive they will be [completely] wicked. But if you wish, test it and take one of them.’ He went and took out Michah").
And afterwards it is written about this same Michah:
""עגל מסכה" — וי"א מיכה היה שם, שיצא מתוך דמוסי בנין שנתמעך בו במצרים,
והיה בידו שם וטס שכתב בו משה "עלה שור עלה שור" להעלות ארונו של יוסף מתוך נילוס,
והשליכו לתוך הכור ויצא העגל" (Rashi to Shemot 32:4 — '"A molten calf" — some say that Michah was there, who had come out from the building mould in which he had been crushed in Egypt. In his hand was a tablet with the Name, upon which Moshe had written "עלה שור, עלה שור" — "Rise, ox, rise, ox" — to raise the coffin of Yosef from the Nile. He threw it into the furnace and out came the calf').

3] The six sins (or failings) of Moshe Rabbeinu.
"אמר לפניו: כל הכעס הזה עלי למה?
אמר לו: 'על אשר לא קדשתם אותי'" (Devarim 32:51 — "Because you did not sanctify Me").
"אמר לפניו: עם כל הבריות אתה מתנהג במידת רחמים שנים ושלושה פעמים,
שנאמר: 'הן כל אלה יפעל א-ל פעמים שלוש עם גבר'" (Iyov 33:29 — "Behold, all these God does twice, three times with a man").
"ואני עון אחד, ואין אתה מוחל לי?
אמר לו הקב"ה: משה, הרי עשית ששה עונות ולא גיליתי לך אחד מהם" — Moshe said before Him: "All this anger against me — why?" He replied: "Because you did not sanctify Me"; Moshe argued that God deals mercifully two or three times with all creatures, so why not with him for one sin; God responded: "Moshe, you in fact committed six sins, and I did not reveal even one of them to you."
"בתחילה אמרת [in the list there are seven, due to variant readings]:
1] 'שלח נא ביד תשלח'" (Shemot 4:13 — "Please send by the hand of whom You will send").
"2] 'ומאז באתי אל פרעה לדבר בשמך הרע לעם הזה והצל לא הצלת את עמך'" (Shemot 5:23 — "From the time I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your Name, he has made things worse for this people, and saving Your people You have not saved").
"3] 'הצאן ובקר ישחט להם ומצא להם אם את כל דגי הים יאסף להם ומצא להם'" (Bemidbar 11:22 — "Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them and be enough for them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered for them and be enough for them?").
"4] 'לא ה' שלחני'" (Bemidbar 16:29 — "Hashem has not sent me").
"5] 'ואם בריאה יברא ה''" (Bemidbar 16:30 — "If Hashem creates a new creation…").
"6] 'שמעו נא המורים'" (Bemidbar 20:10 — "Listen now, you rebels!").
"7] 'והנה קמתם תחת אבותיכם תרבות אנשים חטאים'" (Bemidbar 32:14 — "And behold, you have risen in place of your fathers, a brood of sinful men").
"ואברהם יצחק ויעקב חטאים היו, שאמרת לבניהם כך?" — "Were Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov sinners, that you say this to their children?"
"אמר לפניו: ממך למדתי, שאמרת 'מחתות החטאים'" (Bemidbar 17:3 — "the fire‑pans of the sinners").
"אמר לו: אני אמרתי 'בנפשותם' ולא 'באבותם'" — God answered that He had referred to "their souls," not "their fathers."
(Midrash Tanchuma, parashat Vaetchanan, §6).
And a related source:
"ויאמר ה' אל משה ואל אהרן יען לא האמנתם בי להקדישני לעיני בני ישראל לכן לא תביאו את הקהל הזה אל הארץ אשר נתתי להם" (Bemidbar 20:12 — "And Hashem said to Moshe and to Aharon: Because you did not believe in Me to sanctify Me before the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this congregation into the land that I have given them").
"'יען לא האמנתם בי' — the verse reveals that if not for this sin alone, they would have entered the Land… and ‘הצאן ובקר ישחט’ (Bemidbar 11:22) is in fact more serious than this, but since it was said in private, the verse spared him; whereas here, before all Israel, the verse did not spare him, for the sake of sanctifying the Name" (Rashi).
"'להקדישני' — for had you spoken to the rock and it had given water, I would have been sanctified before the congregation; they would have said: ‘If this rock, which neither speaks nor hears and has no need of sustenance, fulfills the word of the Omnipresent — how much more so should we’" (Rashi there).

4] There were matters that Moshe Rabbeinu forgot for a certain time.
Our Sages said: "לא היה דבר שלא נמסר למשה רבנו בסיני ואפילו מה שתלמיד ותיק עתיד לחדש" — "There was nothing that was not given to Moshe at Sinai, even what an experienced disciple is destined to innovate."
It is indeed true that all words of Torah were said to Moshe at Sinai, and no sage can know more than Moshe knew;
and even if you gather all the sages of all generations from the giving of the Torah until the end of all generations,
there is no innovation that Moshe did not know; that is, Hashem gave Moshe the Written Torah and the Oral Torah in their entirety.
And the blessed Master, in His wisdom, also inscribed in the Written Torah all of the Oral Torah that He told Moshe,
but He did not reveal to Moshe exactly where in the Written Torah each element of the Oral Torah is alluded to.
"And this is the labor of the children of Israel, the toilers in Torah in every generation — to ‘clothe’ the halachot that were said to Moshe at Sinai, the secrets and the derashot,
and to assign each of them its place in the Written Torah.
That is, the work of the sages of the generations is to search and find where all of the Oral Torah is hinted to and contained in the Written Torah."
Thus the Tannaim composed Torat Kohanim and Sifrei, and all their derashot upon Scripture are only according to the received halachot, clothing them within the perfect Written Torah;
and after them until today, this is the holy work of bnei Torah: to analyze the verses and reconcile them with the teachings of the Oral Torah —
this is the service of Torah called "Eretz HaChayim" — "the land of life."
And this aspect — knowing where each element of the Oral Torah is alluded to in the Written Torah — was not fully given to Moshe.
And this is what our Sages meant by "דרש רבי עקיבא דרשות שלא ידעם משה" — "Rabbi Akiva expounded interpretations that Moshe did not know":
it does not mean that Moshe did not know the essence of the matters,
for from him the Torah came to Israel, and he "knew even what a veteran disciple is destined to innovate";
rather, Moshe did not know the textual associations and exact derivations — where all these laws are hinted in the Written Torah.
(Or HaChayim, parashat Tazria, chap. 13, verse 37).
Therefore, every place after the giving of the Torah at Sinai where we are told that Moshe "did not know" a certain halacha
is effectively equivalent to saying that he forgot a halacha.
There are a number of examples of such forgetting:
A] "אמר משה, יודע אני שישראל רוגנים הם, הרני עושה להם חשבון מכל מלאכת המשכן…" — "Moshe said: I know that Israel are complainers; I will therefore make an accounting to them of all the work of the Mishkan." He began to make an accounting with them; "אלה פקודי המשכן" etc.; he accounted for all the gold, silver and copper… and he forgot the 1,775 shekels that had been used to make hooks for the pillars, which were not visible. He was astonished and said: "Now the Israelites will find cause against me, saying that I took them." Then Hashem enlightened his eyes, and he saw that they had been made into hooks for the pillars… "Who caused this? The fact that he sat and made an accounting — ‘Eleh Pekudei HaMishkan’" (Midrash Tanchuma, Pekudei, §7).
B] "יודע היה משה רבינו שהמקושש במיתה, שנאמר 'מחלליה מות יומת'" (Shemot 31:14 — "those who desecrate it [Shabbat] shall surely be put to death"), "אבל לא היה יודע באי זו מיתה הוא ימות" — "Moshe knew that the wood‑gatherer was liable to death, but he did not know with which form of death" (Talmud Bavli, Bava Batra 119a).
C] "יודע היה משה רבינו שבנות צלפחד יורשות הן, אבל לא היה יודע אם נוטלות חלק בכורה אם לאו" — "Moshe knew that the daughters of Tzelofchad inherit, but he did not know whether they take the double portion of the firstborn or not" (ibid.).
D] "נתעלמה ממנו הלכה… והיינו דכתיב 'והמה בוכים פתח אהל מועד'" (Bemidbar 25:6 — "and they were weeping at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting") "וכתיב 'וירא פינחס בן אלעזר'" (Bemidbar 25:7 — "and Pinchas, son of Elazar, saw"). "מה ראה?" — What did he see? "אמר רב: ראה מעשה ונזכר הלכה" — "He saw the act and remembered the halacha" — "הבועל את כותית קנאין פוגעין בו" — "one who has relations with a gentile woman, zealots may attack him." Pinchas said to Moshe: "Brother of my father’s father, did you not teach me this when you descended from Sinai?" Moshe said to him: "Let the reader of the letter be its agent" (Talmud Bavli, Sanhedrin 82a).
E] "אמר רבי הונא: בשלושה מקומות כעס משה ונתעלמה ממנו הלכה…" — "Rabbi Huna said: In three places Moshe became angry and a halacha was hidden from him" — concerning the manna and Shabbat, the laws of metal vessels, and the laws of an onen (a mourner prior to burial). In each case we see that because he became angry, he forgot the halacha, and Aharon or Elazar taught the correct ruling; "ויצא כרוז במחנה ואמר: אני טעיתי את ההלכה ואהרן אחי בא ולימדני" — "Moshe then had a proclamation issued throughout the camp: I erred in the halacha, and Aharon my brother came and taught it to me" (Vayikra Rabbah 13:1).
And similarly:
"ריש לקיש אמר: כל אדם שכועס, אם חכם הוא חכמתו מסתלקת ממנו, אם נביא הוא נבואתו מסתלקת ממנו… אם חכם הוא — ממשה" — "Reish Lakish said: Anyone who becomes angry — if he is a sage, his wisdom departs from him; if he is a prophet, his prophecy departs from him… ‘If he is a sage — we learn this from Moshe’" — "דכתיב 'ויקצוף משה על פקודי החיל'" (Bemidbar 31:14 — "Moshe became angry at the officers of the army"), "וכתיב 'ויאמר אלעזר הכהן אל אנשי הצבא… זאת חוקת התורה אשר צוה ה' את משה'" (Bemidbar 31:21 — "And Elazar the priest said to the men of the army… This is the statute of the Torah that Hashem commanded Moshe") — from here we see that the law regarding metal vessels was concealed from Moshe (Talmud Bavli, Pesachim 66b).

5] There were matters that Yehoshua bin Nun forgot.
"אמר רב יהודה אמר שמואל: שלשת אלפים הלכות נשתכחו בימי אבלו של משה…" — "Rav Yehuda said in the name of Shmuel: Three thousand halachot were forgotten during the days of mourning for Moshe." They said to Yehoshua, "Ask [from Heaven]," and he replied: "'לא בשמים היא'" (Devarim 30:12 — "It is not in Heaven"). They said to Shmuel, to Pinchas, to Elazar, and they said: "'אלה המצוות'" — "These are the commandments" — a prophet has no permission to innovate anything from now on. "בשעה שנפטר משה רבינו לגן עדן… מיד תשש כחו של יהושע ונשתכחו ממנו שלוש מאות הלכות ונולדו לו שבע מאות ספקות…" — When Moshe was about to pass on to Gan Eden, he said to Yehoshua: "Ask me about all the doubts you have." Yehoshua replied that he had never left him for even an hour, as it is written, "ומשרתו יהושע בן נון נער לא ימיש מתוך האהל" (Shemot 33:11 — "His servant Yehoshua bin Nun, a youth, would not depart from the Tent"). Immediately the strength of Yehoshua weakened, and he forgot three hundred halachot and had seven hundred doubts, and all Israel stood to kill him, until Hashem told him to occupy them with war… "במתניתין תנא: אלף ושבע מאות קלין וחמורין וגזירות שוות ודקדוקי סופרים נשתכחו בימי אבלו של משה… אף על פי כן החזירן עתניאל בן קנז מתוך פלפולו" — "A baraita taught: 1,700 laws of minor and major severity, gezeirot shavot and fine points of the Scribes were forgotten in the days of mourning for Moshe; nevertheless Otniel ben Kenaz restored them through his sharp analysis" (Talmud Bavli, Temurah 16a).

6] "משיב חכמים אחור ודעתם יסכל" (Yeshayahu 44:25 — "He turns wise men backward and makes their knowledge foolish").
A] In one passage, a sage said to another: "אילו חבית של דבש ודרקון כרוך עליה, לא היו שוברין את החבית בשביל דרקון?" — "If there is a barrel of honey with a snake coiled around it, would we not break the barrel because of the snake?" The other remained silent. Rav Yosef (and some say Rabbi Akiva) applied to him the verse, "משיב חכמים אחור ודעתם יסכל" (Yeshayahu 44:25), explaining that he should have said: "We take tongs, remove the snake, kill it, and leave the barrel intact" (Talmud Bavli, Gittin 56b).
B] In the same sugya it is told that Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai said to the Roman general: "תן לי יבנה וחכמיה ושושילתא דרבן גמליאל ואסוותא דמסיין ליה לרבי צדוק" — "Give me Yavneh and its sages, and the line of Rabban Gamliel, and physicians to heal Rabbi Tzadok." Rav Yosef (and some say Rabbi Akiva) again applied the verse "משיב חכמים אחור ודעתם יסכל" — he should have asked that Jerusalem itself be spared, but he feared that if he asked too much, nothing would be granted, so he chose partial salvation (ibid.).

7] On the day that Rabban Gamliel was removed from the Nesi’ut (position of Nasi),
and Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah was appointed in his place, the following change was made:
"אותו היום סלקוהו לשומר הפתח, ונתנה להם רשות לתלמידים ליכנס. שהיה רבן גמליאל מכריז ואומר: 'כל תלמיד שאין תוכו כברו לא יכנס לבית המדרש'. ההוא יומא אתוספו כמה ספסלי…" — "That day they removed the guard at the door and gave permission for the students to enter. For Rabban Gamliel used to proclaim: ‘Any student whose inside is not like his outside may not enter the Beit Midrash.’ That day many benches were added." Rabbi Yochanan said: Abba Yosef ben Dostai and the Rabbis disagreed: one said 400 benches were added, and one said 700. Rabban Gamliel felt distressed and said: "Perhaps, Heaven forbid, I have withheld Torah from Israel?"
"אחזו ליה בחלמיה חצבי חיורי דמליין קטמא. ולא היא, ההיא ליתובי דעתיה הוא דאחזו ליה" — "They showed him in a dream white jugs filled with ashes [hinting that the new students were ‘empty vessels’]. But it was not so — they showed it to him only to calm his mind" (Talmud Bavli, Berachot 28a).

8] "אם ה' הסיתך בי ירח מנחה" (Shmuel I 26:19 — "If Hashem has incited you against me, let Him accept an offering").
Rabbi Elazar said: The Holy One, blessed be He, said to David: "You called Me a ‘mesit’ (inciter)? I will cause you to stumble in a matter that even schoolchildren know," as it is written: "כי תשא את ראש בני ישראל לפקודיהם ונתנו איש כפר נפשו" (Shemot 30:12 — "When you take a census of the children of Israel according to their number, then each shall give Hashem an atonement for his soul"). Immediately: "ויעמד שטן על ישראל" (Divrei HaYamim I 21:1 — "And Satan stood up against Israel"), and "ויסת את דוד בהם לאמר: לך מנה את ישראל" (Shmuel II 24:1 — "He incited David against them, saying: Go, count Israel"). And when David counted them, he did not take from them the half‑shekel atonement, as a result of which "ויתן ה' דבר בישראל מהבקר ועד עת מועד" (Shmuel II 24:15 — "Hashem sent a plague upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time"). "מאי 'עת מועד'?" — What is "the appointed time"? Shmuel the Elder, the son‑in‑law of Rabbi Chanina, said in the name of Rabbi Chanina: "From the time of the slaughtering of the daily offering until the time of its sprinkling." Rabbi Yochanan said: "Until actual midday" (Talmud Bavli, Berachot 62b).

9] The Or HaChayim HaKadosh and the Baal Shem Tov
would regularly experience ascent of the soul (aliyat neshamah),
and could study from the holy library in Gan Eden without needing a physical copy of the sefer from which they were learning,
and they had truly perfect memory.
And in our generation — which leading rabbi, to whom the Jewish parties in the Knesset of Israel listen, has merited all this?

Thank you.

Shalom u’vracha 

The point is not that a human being of flesh and blood cannot make a mistake. Even Moshe Rabbeinu erred, as Chazal state in several places. Nevertheless, we are obligated to listen to the sages of our own generation. “Yiftach in his generation is like Shmuel in his generation” — each leader of the generation has authority for his time. 

HaKadosh Baruch Hu directs Am Yisrael according to His will, and part of that guidance is to provide the Jewish people with the correct direction that is appropriate for them at that particular time. 

Rabbi Yochanan, who “erred” by not asking Vespasian to spare the Beit HaMikdash, did not err in the simple, human sense. Rather, the verse “He turns wise men backward and makes their knowledge foolish” was fulfilled — meaning: this is how it was meant to be; this is how Hashem directed them. In practice he was not able to say otherwise, despite his immense wisdom. 

One who listens to the voice of the sages of Israel fulfills the mitzvah to heed the chachamim, and gains in this world and in the World to Come. One who ignores them transgresses this obligation and inherits a double Gehinnom. 

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