Beginning in October 2004, an attempt was made to re-establish a revived Sanhedrin, a national rabbinical court of Jewish law in Israel. The organization heading this attempt referred to itself as the nascent Sanhedrin or developing Sanhedrin, and regarded itself as a provisional body awaiting integration into the Israeli government as both a supreme court and an upper house of the Knesset. The Israeli secular press regards it as an illegitimate fundamentalist organization of rabbis. The organization, which was composed of over 70 rabbis (similar to the composition of the original Sanhedrin), claimed to enjoy recognition and support from the entire religious Jewish community in Israel. However, it was mostly ignored by the Haredi community, and stirred debate in both religious and secularist circles. There has not been a "full meeting" of the Sanhedrin since 2005 and its leader resigned in 2008. Haredi Zionist rabbis involved in the Sanhedrin revival attempt included Yisrael Ariel and Yoel Schwartz.
Precedents
The 12th century scholar, Maimonides, discussed the seeming incompatibility of the essential requirement of Jewish Law for a Sanhedrin, and the inability to form one due to the loss of semikhah. In his magnum opus, the Mishneh Torah, he proposed a procedure to re-establish a Sanhedrin.Maimonides, Sefer Mishneh Torah (Maimonides' Code of Jewish Law) (in Hebrew), Hil. Sanhedrin 4:11 This later became the subject of legal rulings by Rabbi Jacob Berab, Rabbi Yosef Karo and others.
There have been several attempts to implement Maimonides' recommendations. The current attempt is the sixth in recent history. It is modeled after the attempt by Rabbi Jacob Berab in 1538, and follows attempts by Rabbi Yisroel of Shklov in 1830, Rabbi Aharon Mendel haCohen in 1901, Rabbi Zvi Kovsker in 1940 and Rabbi Yehuda Leib Maimon in 1949.
The election process and selection of Rabbi Halberstam
Maimonides and other medieval commentators suggested that, although the line of semikhah (Biblical ordination) from Moses had been broken in 425 CE, if the sages in the land of Israel agree upon a single candidate being worthy of semikhah, that individual would have semikhah, and could then grant it to others, thus enabling the re-establishment of the Sanhedrin.
This attempt was intended to improve upon Rabbi Jacob Berab's attempt by contacting seven hundred rabbis across Israel, as opposed to Jacob Berab's election by twenty-five rabbis of Safed. According to the new Sanhedrin's website,"The idea behind the restoration of the Great Court, and the halakhic foundations for operation" the process of election was explained by Rabbi Dov Levanoni, a member of the new Sanhedrin. He said the most recent attempt to renew the institution of semikhah in 2004 was made through a consensus of hundreds of the most influential and scholarly rabbis living in Israel. While Rabbi Jacob Berab and Rabbi Joseph Karo laid an excellent halachic (Jewish law) foundation for understanding this teaching of Maimonides, the current attempt to re-establish the Jewish Sanhedrin has tried to learn from previous attempts and avoid some of the pitfalls. For example, to avoid claims that not all the rabbis of Israel were aware of the latest attempt to set up the Sanhedrin, an initial enormous expenditure was spent on a publicity campaign of the upcoming semikhah process, 50,000 copies of a detailed flier were distributed among 4,500 Jewish centers in Israel, outlining that a vote of a first samuch was going to be held, along with contact information of the Va'ad ha-Mechonen la-Sanhedrin. Not long afterwards, seven hundred leading rabbis were contacted either in person or by written letter. Levanoni explained that Rabbi Moshe Halberstam, a senior rabbi on Jerusalem's Edah HaChareidis, became the first samuch after receiving approval by Israel's leading rabbis – those followed by most of Israel's religious Jews – and there were no objections from the hundreds of rabbis consulted via written letters.
The website also claims that leading sages have supported the semikhah directly or indirectly or abstained, and specifically mentions these names, though with no proof: Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliashiv, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg and many others gave their blessing but did not join the Sanhedrin. The son of Rabbi Mordecai Eliyahu is one of the rabbis ordained. Former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi and Rosh Yeshiva of Merkaz HaRav Kook Rabbi Avraham Shapira chose to abstain on the issue but also refused to discourage it.
Halberstam (April 1, 1932 – April 26, 2006), who was selected to receive Semikhah by consensus, was a relatively well known figure and widely respected. Halberstam was the son of Grand Rabbi Yaakov Halberstam of Tshokava (a scion of the Sanz dynasty) and of the daughter of Rabbi Sholom of Shotz of London. He was the rosh yeshiva of the Tshokava Yeshiva in Jerusalem and one of the most prominent members of the Edah Charedis Rabbinical court of Jerusalem. He was known as a tremendous Torah scholar and a decisor of halachic law. He wrote approbations to many works of Torah literature. Halberstam served at the President of Hatzolah Israel. He was also the Rabbi of the Shaarei Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem. He was known for his tolerance towards other streams of thought in Orthodox Judaism. Despite his own Hareidi anti-Zionist background, he also maintained contacts with Modern Orthodox, religious Zionist leaders.
The website does not claim that these figures supported the creation of a Sanhedrin, only that they supported the reinstitution of classical Semikhah. Rabbi Dov Shtein, the secretary for the Sanhedrin project, claimed that Halberstam understood where his actions would lead. Shtein said "Without Rabbi Halberstam's efforts toward renewing semikhah, it would not have happened the way it did. ... By agreeing to be the first to be ordained, he took a serious risk of being rejected and condemned by his community for taking part in such a project, which set the ball rolling for the foundation of a Jewish legal body that seeks to eventually supersede the Badatz. But despite the serious pressures put on him following his agreement and granting of semikhah to others, he never went back on it or even tempered his agreement with the act of renewing semikhah."
The formation of a placeholder Sanhedrin
The Sanhedrin website explains: "To avoid disagreements over who was worthy to sit on the Sanhedrin, a Beis din of 71 was immediately formed. It was formed with the best scholars available, with the public announcement every one of them has agreed to step aside the moment a more deserving candidate should step forward. Lastly, the Nasi has indicated that the Beis din would wait until the best scholars of Eretz Yisroel were represented on the Beis din before beginning to fully function halachically as the Sanhedrin of old."Rabbi Yaakov Beirav's attempt to re-establish a Sanhedrin in 1538 Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz (the Nasi of this Sanhedrin) said, "I'd be happy if in another few years these chairs are filled by scholars who are greater than us [sic] and we can say: `I kept the chairs warm for you.'"Nadav Shragai, Now that there's a Sanhedrin, who needs the Supreme Court?
In October 2004 (Tishrei 5765), a group of rabbis representing varied Orthodox communities in Israel undertook a ceremony in Tiberias,Sanhedrin Launched in Tiberias Israel National News January 20, 2005 where the original Sanhedrin was disbanded. About one hundred of them at the time having proper Semikhah. This was one year after the re-establishment of Semikhah. A Beth Din of 71 was formed. They claimed to re-establish this body according to the proposal of Maimonides and the Jewish legal rulings of Rabbi Yosef Karo. The controversial attempt has been subject to debate within different Jewish communities.
Rabbi Tzvi Eidan, the author of Asot Mishpat (on the laws of reestablishing the Sanhedrin) was appointed as first interim Nasi. Rabbi Adin Steinzaltz, a noted Talmudic scholar and Jewish philosopher, was elected Nasi. The Sanhedrin's spokesmen said that due to concerns that external pressure would be brought to bear upon individuals not to take part in the establishment of a Sanhedrin, the names of most participants would not be made public.
Members included:Current members of the Sanhedrin Adin Steinsaltz Nachman Kahane Yoel Schwartz Yisrael Ariel Yosef Dayan
The acceptance of office of Nasi by Rabbi Steinsaltz
The newspaper Haaretz reported that in his speech accepting the position of Nasi, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz said that the task of building the Sanhedrin will take some time. He spoke about gradually building up the ancient institution, which would take several generations.
Steinsaltz said that the Sanhedrin would not get involved in politics: "I'm not afraid of the Supreme Court, the police or the attorney general. A rabbi is also permitted to engage in public issues, but to do so he has to have all the appropriate material before him, whether he is dealing with the kosher status of a chicken or the disengagement."
Under the influence of Rabbi Steinsaltz, the Sanhedrin project shifted away from idealistic projects of its first year and tried to move toward broadening participation. Steinsaltz requested that the new Sanhedrin not be referred to as "the Sanhedrin", but requested modest references to the current institution as the nascent Sanhedrin, the developing Sanhedrin, the Sanhedrin project, or simply the Rabbinical Court of 71 judges (Beis din shel 71). Steinsaltz was reportedly changing the direction of the new Sanhedrin, widening the scope and acceptance of the Court with the intention of moving towards becoming the full Sanhedrin.
According to their website, the strategy to gain wider acceptance and "provide a smooth transition from current halachic leadership to a full Sanhedrin", is to follow these guidelines: absolute adherence to traditional Rabbinic authorities and procedure; caution and conservatism; independence from any other organization; scholarship; and an open dialog with the Torah sages and current halachic leadership (with the eventual goal of their participation). On their forum it was put this way, "the [new] Sanhedrin should hold no surprises. It should be as comfortable as opening a Gemara [Talmud] or as familiar as reading the Shulchan Arukh. It should be the embodiment of Judaism as we know it today."Sanhedrin Forum
In 2008, Rabbi Steinsaltz resigned from his position.
The current Sanhedrin's view of government The new Sanhedrin's website portrays the Sanhedrin as a form of Rabbinic Parliament, part of a bicameral system that they claim reflects traditional Jewish government.Special Court For Matters Concerning The Nation and the State They claim that this model has influenced the organizational structure of many Western European legislatures.Examples are given concerning division of authority, the name "Senate", even semicircle seating. They describe the roles of an upper and lower house:
The Sanhedrin is described as a "House of Scholars". This body represents the "rights and obligations" of the people to the "Torah Constitution" which they define as including "the Torah, Talmud and body of Rabbinic Jurisprudence that has been built up over our history as a people".Sanhedrin Forum A parallel "Congressional Assembly" represents the "democratic needs of the population". It is conceived as being derived from the royal court of a constitutional monarchy, in a democratic society it would consist of an assembly of regionally elected representatives, represented by voting power. (The head of the lower house was traditionally the Monarch, or in a modern times a Prime Minister. He would have the power to collect taxes and would be the head of the executive branch of government. He would be subordinate only to the Sanhedrin.)