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Close to 50 recently ordained s'muchim, members
of the Sanhedrin, lined up at the foot of the Temple Mount Monday morning.
[The word s'muchim comes from the same root as s'michah, ,
rabbinic ordination.] The men, many ascending the Temple Mount for the
first time, had immersed in mikvaot (ritual baths) that morning,
and planned to ascend as a group. Despite prior approval from the Israeli
police who oversee entry to the Mount, the officers barred the group from
entering the Mount all together, and allowed them to visit only in groups
of ten.
Given the newly-mandated restrictive conditions, many of the s'muchim refused
to ascend at all, especially as a group of over 100 non-Jewish tourists
filed past the waiting rabbis and up towards the holy site. “It is
unconscionable that on the eve of Chanukah, which celebrates the
rededication of the Holy Temple, we should once again be barred from
worshipping – by our own people,” Rabbi Chaim Richman of Jerusalem’s
Temple Institute told IsraelNN’s Ezra HaLevi.
The Sanhedrin, a religious-legal assembly of 71 sages that convened during
the Holy Temple period and for several centuries afterwards, was the
highest Jewish judicial tribunal in the Land of Israel. The great court
used to convene in one of the Temple’s chambers in Jerusalem.
This past October, the
Sanhedrin was reestablished for the
first time in 1,600 years, at the site of its last meeting in Tiberias.
“There is a special mitzvah [commandment], not connected to time, but
tied to our presence in Israel, to establish a Sanhedrin,” Rabbi Meir
HaLevi, one of the 71 members of the new Sanhedrin, told Israel National
Radio’s Weekend Edition. “The Rambam [12th-century Torah scholar
Maimonides] describes the process exactly in the Mishna Torah [his
seminal work codifying Jewish Law]. When he wrote it, there was no
Sanhedrin, and he therefore outlines the steps necessary to establish one.
When there is a majority of rabbis, in Israel, who authorize one person to
be a samuch, , an authority, he can then reestablish the
Sanhedrin.”
Those behind the revival of the Sanhedrin stress that the revival of the
legal body is not optional, but mandated by the Torah. “We don’t have
a choice,” says Rabbi Richman. “It is a religious mandate for us to
establish a Sanhedrin.”
The Sanhedrin was reestablished through the ordination of one rabbi agreed
upon by many prominent rabbis in Israel and approved as “fitting to
serve” by former Chief Sefardi Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef and leading Ashkenazi
Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv. That rabbi, who is then considered to have
received authentic ordination as handed down from Moses, was then able to
give ordination to 70 others, making up the quorum of 71 necessary for the
Sanhedrin.
“Even Mordechai HaYehudi of the Purim story was accepted, as it is
written, only ‘by the majority of his brethren,’ and not by
everybody," Rabbi HaLevi explained. "Anyone who deals with
public issues can not be unanimously accepted.”
The rabbis behind the Sanhedrin’s reconstitution claim that, like the
State of Israel, the old-new Sanhedrin is a work-in-progress. They see it
as a vessel that, once established, will reach the stature and authority
that it once had.
“The first members requested that their names not be published, so as to
allow it to grow without public criticism of individuals,” HaLevi said.
“We want to give it time to develop and strengthen the institution,
giving a chance for more rabbis to join.” He added that each of the
current members of the Sanhedrin has agreed to be a conditional member
until a more knowledgeable rabbi joins, taking his place.
Rabbi Richman, also a member of the Sanhedrin, hopes the body will bring
about a revolution in Jewish jurisprudence. Declining to discuss exactly
what issues are on the Sanhedrin’s agenda, Richman said that one of the
main long-term goals of the Sanhedrin is to reunify Jewish observance in
Israel. The Sanhedrin includes members of Ashkenazi, Sefardi, Hasidic,
National-Religious and Hareidi communities.
“We Jews went into exiles all over the world,” Rabbi HaLevi said.
“Every community established its own court. We are talking about more
than 50 different legal systems developing separately from one another.
Part of our return to Israel is the reunification of our Jewish
practices.”
A tradition is recorded in the Talmud (Tractate Megillah 17b, Rashi) that
the Sanhedrin will be restored after a partial ingathering of the Jewish
exiles, but before Jerusalem is completely rebuilt and restored. Another
Talmudic tradition (Eruvin 43b; Maharatz Chajas ad loc; Rashash to
Sanhedrin 13b) states that Elijah the Prophet will present himself before
a duly-ordained Sanhedrin when he announces the coming of the Messiah.
This indicates that despite common misconceptions, a Sanhedrin is a pre-,
not post-messianic institution. |
- propheticround-up.com
