S.A.L.T. - Thursday

Parashat Pinchas tells of the initiation of "semikha" - the formal transition of halakhic authority from one leader to the next.  Moshe placed his hands on Yehoshua's head, naming him his successor (27:23).  This process continued through the times of the Amoraim, until the year 4298 (538 C.E. - see Sanhedrin 14a; Ketubot 17a). The ramifications of semikha relate to the possibility of administering punishments to violators as the Torah prescribes.  Only a rabbinical court with formal semikha can administer these fines and punishments. (The "semikha" granted today to graduates of rabbinical seminaries is primarily symbolic - though perhaps with some halakhic significance - and bears no connection to the formal, halakhic semikha that began with Moshe Rabbeinu's assigning Yehoshua as successor.)  Exactly one thousand years after the discontinuation of semikha, in 5298 (1538), a major controversy erupted here in Eretz Yisrael surrounding the possibility of reinstating it.  In a very famous ruling, the Rambam (Hilkhot Sanhedrin 4:11; Peirush Ha-mishnayot, beginning of Sanhedrin) ruled that if "all the scholars of Eretz Yisrael" agreed to appoint rabbinical judges and grant them the official power of semikha, they have the authority to do so.  In the years following the Spanish Inquisition, ex-Marranoes, who had outwardly taken on Christianity rather than giving their lives, relocated in Eretz Yisrael and sought expiation for their "conversion" out of the faith.  As they were liable for the punishment of "karet" (eternal excommunication), they needed a court authorized to administer "malkot" (lashes), which absolves a sinner from "karet" (see Makkot 23a).

And so, the twenty-five leading rabbis of Tzefat, the center of Jewish life in Eretz Yisrael at the time, convened and unanimously, as Rav Yaakov Beirav records, accepted the Rambam's ruling. Rav Yaakov, known as the Mahar"i Beirav, was formally granted the reinstated semikha.  He proceeded to confer the status upon four of his students, including Rav Yossef Karo, author of the Shulchan Arukh.

The community of Jerusalem, however, vehemently opposed the reinstating of the semikha.  The city's rabbi, Rav Levi Ben Chaviv, composed an entire work in which he disputed the validity of the renewed semikha.  He raised several halakhic objections.  First, the Rambam, in his presentation of this ruling, concludes, "but the matter requires a decision," pointing to a degree of ambivalence on his part.  Additionally, the Rambam's ruling requires unanimous consent on the part of all of Eretz Yisrael's rabbis.  Therefore, the rabbis of Tzefat had no authority to reinstate the semikha without the approval of the rabbis of Yerushalayim, even if they constitute the minority.  What more, the verse specifically states, "For from Zion shall come forth Torah, and the Word of God from Jerusalem."  Clearly, then, the Jerusalem rabbis could not be given a back seat behind the scholars in Tzefat.  Rav Levi Ben Chaviv also expressed concern over the possibility of the semikha leading to the reintroduction of "kiddush al pi re'iya," the determination of months based on the sighting of the new moon.  This move, Rav Levi feared, would perhaps result in the annulment of the second day of Yom Tov observed in the Diaspora, a custom that Rav Levi felt no halakhic body could have the authority to eliminate.  (Recall that the second day of Yom Tov began during the times when the High Court in Jerusalem determined the months based on the sighting of the new moon.  Distant communities often did not find out which day had been declared Rosh Chodesh until after Yom Tov, and thus observed two days to be safe.  In commemoration, Diaspora communities ever since continue to observe the extra day, despite the establishment of a fixed calendar that eliminated any confusion.)

The Mahari Beirav responded to all of Rav Levi's arguments.  As for the Rambam's hesitation, the Mahari explained that this clause modified not the basic halakha, of the possible renewal of the semikha, but rather to the final detail mentioned in this context, that two others could join one with semika to form an authoritative court.  The Mahari also rejected the need to include to rabbis of Jerusalem in the process, pointing to the principle of "rubo ke-kulo" (the majority is tantamount to the entirety) as authorizing the majority of sages to reinstate the semikha.  Rav Levi Ben Chaviv had argued that this principle would work only if all the rabbis had convened and voted on the matter.  As for the concern of reinstating "kiddush ha-chodesh," the Mahari clarified that he had no intention whatsoever of extending the authority granted by the semikha to such an extent.

In any event, the semikha lasted for about a century, ending with Rav Chayim Vital, who had received semikha from Rav Moshe Alshikh, himself having received it from Rav Yossef Karo. 

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