Office of Chief Rabbinate vacant, paving the way for prophetic return of Sanhedrin
The news has been full of major stories, focusing on the turbulent world of the presidential campaign in the US, the multi-front war being fought by Israel, and the war in Ukraine. But one seemingly minor story passed under the radar, its possible implications overlooked. The Chief Rabbi’s two offices are empty for the first time in Israel’s history. For some, this vacuum paves the way for the revival of the Biblical Sanhedrin.
On the first day of this month, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau and Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef stepped down as their 10-year terms expired, leaving the positions empty for the first time since the modern state of Israel was established.
The chief rabbis are elected every ten years by 150 eligible voters. Eighty of these voters are other rabbis, many of them municipal chief rabbis, IDF rabbis, rabbinic judges (dayanim), and so on. Seventy of the voters are public officials representing the Knesset and local authorities. By law, replacements are supposed to be elected at least 21 days before the end of their term.
Despite extending their terms for an extra year, their replacements were not appointed before they left office. A vote was initially supposed to be held in August 2023. However, the Knesset postponed the vote at the behest of Religious Affairs Minister Michael Malkieli, who argued that the timing would interfere with municipal elections scheduled for October 31.
To make matters worse, the Attorney General intervened, saying that neither rabbi could be involved in selecting members of the statutory body over a conflict of interest.
In January, the High Court of Justice ruled that women were under-represented in the election assembly and ordered the Chief Rabbis to include women in their selections.
Until new Chief Rabbis are selected, Rabbi Eliezer Igra temporarily served as interim president of the rabbinical court and Rabbi Yaakov Roja as interim president of the Council of the Chief Rabbinate. Rabbi Roja refused to comply with the High Court’s order to appoint female rabbis to the committee, and Rabbi Yitzhak Ralbag replaced him.
No clear front runners to replace Rabbis Lau and Yosef have emerged.
The timing of the crisis in the Chief Rabbinate is significant, as Israeli society is deeply divided over judicial reforms.
Indeed, there is a global crisis of justice. On Friday, the International Court of Justice, the principal judicial arm of the United Nations located in The Hague, issued a non-binding, 83-page opinion declaring Israeli “occupation” of Judea and Samaria to be “unlawful.”
In the US, public trust in the justice system and law enforcement is at an all-time low as they have been weaponized against conservatives.
It should be emphasized that establishing courts of justice is the fifth Noahide Law incumbent upon all of mankind. Genesis 9:6 commands Man to punish murderers. This is not due to logic or an innate sense of morality. The reason is “for in His image Did Hashem make man.” By punishing crime, Man is emulating God’s image. By perverting justice, bodies like the ICJ, the DOJ, and the FBI are disputing God’s rule.
The Chief Rabbinate of Israel is recognized by law as the supreme rabbinic authority in Israel. The Chief Rabbinate Council assists the two Chief Rabbis, an Ashkenazi rabbi and a Sephardi rabbi also known as the Rishon LeTzion, who alternate in its presidency.
The title of Rishon LeTzion was given to the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem in the 17th century. During the British Mandate of Palestine, the High Commissioner established the Orthodox Rabbinate, comprising the Rishon LeZion and an Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi.
In 1953, rabbinical courts were established, with jurisdiction over matters of marriage and divorces of all Jews in Israel, nationals and residents. It was also provided that marriages and divorces of Jews in Israel would be conducted according to the law of the Torah.
But the concept of Chief Rabbinate is not based in the Bible or (ironically) rabbinic literature. It was established in exile and many countries outside of Israel still have a chief rabbinate. Many critics claim the rabbinate has its roots in the influence of Christianity’s clergy structure. Just as designated clergy officials would lead parishes and dioceses, so too would rabbis lead communities.
Critics of the rabbinic office claim that the office has become a political, rather than a religious, office and that it has become beholden to the Haredi world and become their “puppets”. Indeed, the Chief Rabbinate as a branch of the government was established in 1947 when Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and the Orthodox religious parties reached an agreement, which included an understanding that matters of personal status in Israel would continue to be determined by the existing religious authorities. This arrangement has been termed the status quo agreement and has been maintained despite numerous government changes since then.
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As noted, the rabbinate is not based on the Bible, and there have been calls to return to a Sanhedrin of 71, as mandated by the Torah. In April 1806, French Emperor Napoleon I convened a Jewish Grand Sanhedrin in Europe to endorse and legitimise his goals of assimilating Jews into French society.
This desire to revive the Sanhedrin became more robust after the modern state of Israel was established. Halacha (Jewish law) mandates that It is forbidden for Jews to utilize a system of law that is not based on the Torah. While there are methods to enable Jews in foreign countries to access the non-Jewish judicial system, this is not true in the state of Israel when there is a Jewish government.
Also, the revival of the Sanhedrin was prophesied by Isaiah:
One attempt was made in 1950, when Israel’s Minister of Religion, Rabbi Judah Maimon, appealed to all rabbis in Israel to summon a national conference of practicing rabbis to discuss the possibility of reestablishing the Sanhedrin.
Again, in October 2004, an attempt was made to re-establish a revived Sanhedrin as a provisional body. Led by Rabbis Yisrael Ariel and Yoel Schwartz, it was mostly ignored by the Haredi community.
One criticism was that the Sanhedrin’s members must be recipients of semicha, the classic Jewish ordination performed by a literal laying on of hands, a physical chain that traces itself back to Moses. This special ordination ended in the third century. It was assumed that when ordination died out, it was no longer possible to revive the Sanhedrin.
This was an inaccurate assumption and Maimonides ruled that “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 head) establishes a house of learning, he would be considered as having received the original ordination and he could then ordain anyone he desires.”
In 2009, the nascent Sanhedrin issued a letter following the elections, requesting that a law be passed stating that “any legislation or ruling that goes against the Torah is null and void, making the Chief Rabbinate independent from politics and politicians and turning it into a supreme court for the entire Jewish people; a law of return to the lands – stating that land under Jewish sovereignty within the borders of the Land of Israel is a part of the State of Israel.”
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