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space between the signatures of the witnesses and the authentication is filled up by lines and dots, it is sufficient (ib. 32 et seq.). Maimonides (Mahveh weLoweh, xxvii. 6) and the Hoshen Mishpat (I.e.) seem to have been of the opinion that the authentication could be written alongside of the document. Although an authenticated document was in the nature of a public record, and had all the faith and credit given to it as such, nevertheless the question of its genuineness ^could be raised. If any sueh question arose, it was sufficient for two of the subscribing judges to acknowledge their signatures to the authentication. Other rules concerning the proof of authenticated instruments, when the same are attested, are stated by the Shulhan 'Aruk, Hoshen Mishpat, 46, 14-16, 37, 38. Bibliography



monides, Tad,

itet. 186-22a B. 'Edut, vi.-viii;

B. 159a, 163a

Shulhan

et sea.;

'Aruli,

Mai-

Hoshen

Mishpat, 46; Zacbaria Frankel, Der Oerichtliche Beweis, pp. 414 et seq.; Talmuilie Lexica, articles Ashsharta, Henpeh, ]£iyyum', Moses Bloch, Die Civil Processordnung, pp.'

J.

Authentication Authority

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

59 et seg.

W.

D.

sk.

AUTHORITY, RABBINICAL:

A.

The power

or right of deciding the Law, in dubious cases, or of interpreting, modifying, or amplifying, and occasionally of abrogating it, as vested in the Rabbis as its teachers and expounders. In Biblical times the Law was chiefly in charge of the priests and the Levites and the high court of justice at Jerusalem, which formed the highest tribunal to decide grave and difficult questions, was also composed of priests and Levites (Deut. xvii. 9, 18; xxxi. 9; xxxiii. 10; Jer. xviii. 18; Mai. ii. 7; II Ohron. xix. 8, 11; xxxi. 4). In the last two preChristian centuries and throughout the Talmudical times the Scribes ("Soferim"), also called "The Wise " (" Hakamim "), who claimed to have received the true interpretation of the Law as " the tradition of the Elders or Fathers " in direct line from Moses, the Prophets, and the men of the Great Synagogue

(Abot i. 1; Josephus, "Ant." xiii. 10, § 6; 16, § 2; x. 4, § 1; "Contra Ap." i. 8; Matt. xv. 2), included people from all classes. They formed the courts of justice in every town as well as the high court of justice, the Sanhedrin, in Jerusalem, and to them was applied the law, Deut. xvii. 8-11, "Thou shalt unto the judge that shall be in those come and thou shalt do according to the sendays, shall show thee; thou tence which they shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall show thee, to the right hand, nor to the left." This is explained thus: Whosoever the judge of those days may be, if he be recognized as competent and blameless, whether he be a Jephthah, a Jerubbaal, or a Samuel, he is, by virtue of his position as chief of the court of justice, invested with the same authorEven ity as Moses (Sifre, Deut. 153; R. H. 25ab). when they decide that left should be right, or right left, when they are mistaken or misled in their judgment, they must be obeyed (R. H. 25a). Heaven .

.

.

.

.

.

.

itself yields to

.

.

.

the authority of the earthly court of

justice as to the fixing of the calendar and the festival days (Yer. R. H. i. 576; compare also Mak. 226).

The power of the Rabbis

II—22

is

a threefold one



(1)

Law either by prohibitory statutes for the prevention of transgressions (" gezerot ") or by mandatory statutes for the improvePowers of ment of the moral or religious life of the Rabbis, the people (" takkanot "), and by the introduction of new rites and customs (" minhagim ") (2) to expound the Law according to certain rules of hermeneutics, and thereby evolve new statutes as implied in the letter of the Law and, finally, (3) to impart additional instruction But the Rabbis were also based upon tradition. empowered on critical occasions to abrogate or modify the Law (see Abrogation of Laws and Accommodation op the Law). In many instances where greater transgressions were to be prevented, or for the sake of the glory of God, or the honor of man, certain Mosaic laws were abrogated or temporarily dispensed with by the Rabbis (Mishnah Ber. ix. (5, 54a, 63a Yoma 69a compare also Yeb. 906). In matrimonial matters the principle adopted is that, since marriages are, as a rule, contracted in accordance with the rabbinical statutes, the Rabbis have the right to annul any marriage which is not in conformity with their ruling (Yeb. 906). In money matters the Rabbis claimed the same right of confiscation in cases when their ruling was disregarded as was exercised by Ezra (see Ezra x. 8 Git. 366). As to the validity of the decisions of the Rabbis, the following rules are to be considered " No rabbinical court [bet din] can impose laws or institute forms of practise which the majority of people can not without great hardship accept and observe" ('Ab. Zarah 36a, B. B. 606). " No rabbinical court can abrogate laws and institutions made by any other court, unless it is superior to amplify the









in both

wisdom and number" ('Eduyyot

i.

5).

If,

however, such a prohibitory law has Dissenting been accepted by the entire Jewish people, no rabbinical court, even Rabbis, though superior to the one that introduced it, has the power of abrogating it ('Ab. Zarah 366; Maimonides, "Yad, " Mamrim, ii. 4). In case two rabbis, or two rabbinical courts, differ in their opinions, the rule is that in questions concerning Mosaic laws the more rigid decision should

prevail; in questions concerning rabbinical laws the more lenient decision should be followed ('Ab. Za"After one of rabbinical authority has rah 7a).

declared a thing to be unclean, no one else has the power to declare it clean after one rabbinical authority has forbidden a thing, no other can permit it If a teacher dissents (Baraita in Nid. 206 Ber. 636). from the decision of the highest court, he may state his dissent and teach accordingly but he is not allowed to oppose the authority of the court in practise, in which case he falls under the category of a "zaken mamre " (a rebellious elder) (Deut. xvii. 12; 'Eduyyot v. 6; B. 31. 596; Yer. 'Ab. Zarah ii. 42d;





Ber. 63a). of course, the Rabbinical Authority rested with the entire body of the court of justice or rabbinical academy, and not with the president or patriarch only. Still, the more eminent the latter in knowledge and wisdom, the

As a matter

and

legislative

power

better he succeeded in making his opinion or propositions prevail in the deliberation and so the new