Continuing on in my series looking for those against whom the “חכמים” argue, brings me to סדר קדשים in the Tosefta, here is the listing:
רבי מאיר – 28
רבי יהודה – 8
רבי – 7
רבי אליעזר – 7
רבי שמעון – 5
רבי אלעזר – 4
רבי עקיבא – 3
עקביה בן מהללאל – 2
רבי אלעאי – 1
רבי יוחנן בן נורי – 1
רבי יוסי – 1
רבי ישמעאל – 1
While, the overall most frequently appearing sages in this סדר are Rabbi Yehudah and Rabbi Shim’on, they don’t appear nearly as much here as does Rabbi Me’ir.
Here are the appearances as percentage of the top four most frequently-appearing Sages who have the חכמים arguing against them: Rabbi Meir = 41.2%, Rabbi Yehudah = 11.8%, Rabbi & Rabbi Eliezer, each = 10.3%. They combine for 73.4% of all of the responses from the חכמים.
As to how frequently the חכמים argue against them versus their own percentage of appearances within the סדר, writ large: Rabbi Meir = 43.1%, Rabbi Yehudah = 6.5%, Rabbi = 14.6%, Rabbi Eliezer = 10%, Rabbi Shimon = 4.3%, Rabbi Eleazar = 11.1%, and Rabbi Akiva = 5.8%. This shows that almost half of the time that Rabbi Meir appears in the this סדר of the Tosefta, the חכמים argue against him; no one even comes close!