[Avodah] Maharat

[Noam Stadlan via Avodah]

The claim that there is a connection between Mosaic semicha and what we have now is historically completely wrong. From "b'inyan semichat chachamim' published in Or Hamizrach:
'At this time when semicha is batel, all the mishpatim from the Torah are battel..based on lifneihem- and not lifnei hedyotot.  And nowadays we are all hedyotot. And the only way it works is that we act as shlichim of Mosaic beit din'
So everyone is a hedyot.  
More to the point in section five there is a detailed examination of semicha included what was required in various areas. 
'The Chatam Sofer writes...that this semicha of morenu and chaver has NO BASIS IN SHAS but is a ashkenazi minhag and does not contain anything real'. 
'They issue of semicha that they estabkished(tiknu), according to the Rivash, because it is forbidden for a student, even one who is hegiah l'hora'ah, to give hora'a or to establish a yeshiva(note that this obviously is not hora'ah)while his teacher is alive....therefore they had the PRACTICE of semicha...that he is no longer a student but can teach others(the word is l'lamed, not hora'ah)'
There is a lot more.  But it is quite clear in the sources brought in this article that the historical record clearly shows No connection between Mosaic semicha and what was begun in the Middle Ages. 

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