Modern Attempts To Revive The Sanhedrin - Rabbi Beirav, The Model For The Current Attempt

Rabbi Beirav, The Model For The Current Attempt

A closer look at the attempt by Rabbi Beirav, and the involvement of the Beis Yosef, which was the model for the current attempt:

Rabbi Yakov Berav (1474–1546), known as the Mahari Beirav, was born in Spain. Evidence of the great respect is afforded by the following lines of Rabbi Abraham Gavison in Omer ha-Shikchah: "Say not that the lamp of the Law no longer burns in Israel! Yakov Beirav has come back! once more he sojourns among us!" In 1533 he became Rabbi at Cairo; and several years after he seems to have finally settled in Safed, which then contained the largest and most learned Jewish community in the Land of Israel. After the Spanish expulsion, many Jews remained in Spain, practicing their Judaism in secret, while publicly appearing to be Christians. Thousands of these Marrano Jews eventually escaped to areas where they could practice their religion with relative freedom, yet they were haunted by the sins they had committed in previous years. As chief Rabbi of Safed, Rabbi Yakov Beirav proposed the creation of Jewish courts that would carry out the punishment of malkos, lashes, which releases someone from the punishment of kareis, or excision (Mishnah Makos 23a). But in order to create these Jewish courts, classical ordination had to be reinstituted.

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