The Sanhedrin, its history and reinstatement

The Jewish legal system consisted and will consist of a big Sanhedrin of 71 judges that is like the high court, small Sanhedrins in each city consisting of 23 judges and batei din (law courts) of 3 judges. The members of batei din (with the exception of monetary cases) and any Sanhedrin must be smuchim (ordained). Ideally, there should be a direct line of smichah (ordination) from Moses. (This smichah should not be confused with the examinations taken today in order to become a rabbi and are also called smichah.) However, line of smichah was lost shortly after the last Sanhedrin ceased to function about 1500 years ago. Hence, the batei din of recent times do not consist of smuchim and are restricted to monetary cases.

Renewing the smichah (according to Maimonides Hilkhot Sanhedrin 4:11,12) requires the agreement of all the Rabbis in Israel to somech (ordain) one person. That person can then somech others. All this must take place in Israel . An attempt was made to reintroduce the smichah in 1538 by Rabbi Yaakov Beirav of Safed but some Rabbis including the Ralbach (Rabbi Levy Chaviv of Jerusalem ) objected. As a result, that smichah was never widely accepted, vanished within two generations and no Sanhedrin was ever formed.

Once there are 71 smuchim, they can form a big Sanhedrin and they could appoint three smuchim to change the calendar. According to the simple interpretation of Maimonides (Hilkhot Kiddush Hachodesh 5:2) the calendar change should happen immediately on the formation of the Sanhedrin. However, the Ralbach holds that this need not happen before the Messiah. The Chazon Ish (Rabbi Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz who lived in the 20th century) reconciles the two opinions by saying that the calendar will be changed some time between the formation of the big Sanhedrin and the coming of the Messiah.

On 9th February 1807, Emperor Napoleon I of France gathered together 71 Jews including 36 Rabbis in Paris and declared them to be a Sanhedrin. He ordered them to rule on certain issues for his own political ends. Later, he used these rulings as a justification for granting limited rights to Jews. This Sanhedrin had no validity in Jewish law for three reasons: it was formed outside Israel , the members were not smuchim and they were coerced into making rulings.

Napoleon's Sanhedrin, Paris , 9th February 1807

At the start of the 20th century, Rabbi Aharon Mendel Baharan of Cairo , Egypt and Rabbi Zvi Mokovsky of Tel-Aviv proposed the reintroduction of the smichah and reinstitution of the Sanhedrin. Hundreds of rabbis from around the World signed on to this proposal but nothing came of it. Shortly after the establishment of the State of Israel, the Religious Affairs Minister, Rabbi Yehudah Leib Maimon, suggested reestablishing the Sanhedrin but again nothing came of it.

In 2001, at the suggestion of Rabbi Zvi Idan, President Katzav, President of Israel, called for the establishment of a Sanhedrin-type body. In early 2004, a number of very senior rabbis were asked if they considered a certain person (who's name has not been published) was worthy of smichah. All those asked indicated that he was worthy. On that basis he then gave smichah to others. By 13th October 2004, there were about 90 smuchim and a big Sanhedrin of 71 was formed in Tiberius (see video, they have a Hebrew website but it may not be up to date – a new website is promised in the near future). The Sanhedrin has been meeting every month or so since its reestablishment. A working group of 23 (small Sanhedrin) intends to meet regularly to discuss important issues and will assemble the big Sanhedrin when necessary to make final decisions. On the subject of the calendar, they are only willing to say that they intend to discuss the implications of fixing the calendar according to observation in our times. However, while I have not heard any formal condemnation of their activities, many major authorities are not taking them seriously, citing serious flaws in the manner in which they reinstated the smichah. As a result, this Sanhedrin has not received widespread recognition.

Members of the Sanhedrin gathered in Jerusalem , 7th February 2005

Here are two differing views on the validity of the new Sanhedrin:

1) According to Rabbi Zvi Idan, leader of the Sanhedrin, the existence of the Sanhedrin changes the whole way Jewish law will be made. From now on, each Rabbi will not be able to rule for his own community. Instead, each member of the Sanhedrin can have his say and the final decision will be by a vote and binding on everybody.

2) On the other hand, Rabbi Nachum Rabinovitch thinks that the new Sanhedrin, like Rabbi Beirav's 16th century smichah, is a joke. He says that using grandious names like Sanhedrin does not make it a reality. We, as a nation, are not in a position to reintroduce smichah and it cannot be done until society is ready.

If this or some other Sanhedrin achieves widespread recognition in the future then a likely scenario for the calendar would be as follows. They would form a committee to discuss the calendar. They would use the information gathered by, amongst others, the Israeli New Moon Society. Members of the society would be invited to advise them. If they came to a decision to renew the determination of the calendar by observation then members of the society would be amongst those who would testify upon seeing the Moon. The observers' testimony would be checked using techniques developed by the society and others.

SOURCE: Arutz Sheva