Vayikra
Leviticus 1:1-5:26
Isaiah 43:21-44:23
“If the entire congregation of Israel commits an inadvertent violation as a result of [a mistaken legal decision of the Highest Court] … and they thereby violate one of the prohibitory commandments of G-d, they shall incur guilt” (Leviticus 4:13).
If the Jewish state could be revived after 2,000 years, then why hasn’t the Sanhedrin, the great Jewish court of the First and Second Commonwealths, been revived?
During the centuries of its existence, this body of 71 elders and sages ruled on every aspect of life. It brought unity to the land because its decisions were binding on the entire nation.
On the surface, reviving the Sanhedrin seems impossible. Its members must be recipients of the classic Jewish ordination.
This traces itself back to Moses himself, and even to the Almighty, as it were, who ordained Moses, who ordained Joshua, who ordained the elders, who ordained the prophets, who ordained “the Men of the Great Assembly” (Sayings of the Sages 1:1).
But this special ordination ended in the third century C.E. When it died out, so, it would seem, did the Sanhedrin and the possibility of its revival.
But a verse in this week’s portion creates alternative possibilities.
In his commentary to the Mishna, medieval Spanish rabbi-theologian Maimonides writes, “…if all the Jewish Sages and their disciples would agree on the choice of one person among those who dwell in Israel as their head [but this must be done in the land of Israel], and [that person] establishes a house of learning, he would be considered as having received the original ordination and he could then ordain anyone he desires.”
Who would vote?
Maimonides adds that the Sanhedrin would return to its original function as it is written in Isaiah (1:26), “I will restore your judges as at first and your Sages as in the beginning.”
Such a selection would mean an election, a list of candidates, ballots. And who does the choosing? The sages and their disciples — everyone with a relationship to Torah sages and Jewish law.
In an alternate source, however, Maimonides extends the privilege of voting to all adult residents of Israel (“Interpretations of the Mishnah”).
This idea reappears in Maimonides’ Mishna Torah, Laws of Sanhedrin, except there he concludes with the phrase, “this matter requires decision.”
In 1563, a sage of Safed, Rabbi Yaakov BeRab, attempted to revive classic ordination using Mainionides’ formula. In an election in Safed, BeRab was declared ordained. He then ordained several of his disciples.
However, rabbis in Jerusalem, led by Rabbi Levi ibn Habib, opposed the Safed decision.
When the question was put before the Ridbaz, Rabbi David Ben Zimra, chief rabbi of Egypt, he ruled in favor of the Jerusalem rabbis. To Ben Zimra, not only had the election been restricted to one city of Israel, but also the phrase, “this matter requires decision,” suggested that Maimonides may have changed his mind and was leaving the issue un-adjudicated.
BeRab understood that the phrase “requires decision” referred to whether one sage was sufficient to ordain others, or three sages were required for ordination. But he was convinced that Maimonides had no doubt about the method and inevitability of reviving classic ordination.
Centuries later, the minister of religion in Israel’s first government, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Maimon, tried to convince the political and religious establishments that along with creation of the state there should be creation of a Sanhedrin.
In his “The Renewal of the Sanhedrin in Our Renewed State,” he cites a copy of Maimonides’ commentary to the Mishna published along with emendations and additions written by Maimonides himself.
There, Maimonides writes that ordination and the Sanhedrin will be renewed before the coming of the Messiah, which implies that it must be achieved through human efforts.
What is the basis for his most democratic suggestion? I believe it stems from a verse in this week’s portion, quoted above.
Commentators ask how can an “entire congregation” sin. Rashi identifies “congregation of Israel” with the Sanhedrin. In other words, the verse really means, “if the Sanhedrin errs.”
The Jewish people are a nation defined by commandments, precepts and laws. Therefore the institution that protects and defines the law is at the heart of the nation’s existence. In fact, how the Jewish people behave, what they do, can become the law.
Knowing all this, it should not come as a surprise that Maimonides wanted to revive the ordination, and found a method democratic in its design.
The “people” equals the Sanhedrin, the “people” can choose one leading Jew who will then have the right to pass on his ordination to others, to re-create the Sanhedrin.
For Maimonides, the population living in the land of Israel represents the historical congregation of Israel (Talmud Tractate Horayot 3b).
And apparently Maimonides is saying that before the next stage of Jewish history unfolds, the nation will have to decide who shall be given the authority to recreate the ordination and who will be the commander-in-chief of the rabbis.
Will it happen in our lifetime?
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is chancellor of Ohr Torah Stone and chief rabbi of Efrat.
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