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Dec 09, '04 / 26 Kislev 5765 - In a dramatic but unpublicized
move, members of the newly established Sanhedrin ascended the
Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site, this past Monday.
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. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=73311 |