[Avodah] Sanhedrin votes

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Apr 21, 2021 at 05:06:35AM +0000, Rich, Joel via Avodah wrote:
> Blog Commenter: At the time when we had a Sanhedrin, there were no
> disputes (at least ideally). The Sanhedrin votes and that's it

I don't think this is true. Questions only went to Sanhedrin when they
couldn't be resolved by lower courts. So, if a question was local to a
city of a sheivet, their beis din pasqened. And in the next sheivet,
their high court would well have ruled differently.

The only way the Sanhedrin vote (or that of the Sanhedrin Qetana in Y-m)
could end a plurarity is if:

1- the question was too complex for all lower courts, or
2- argument broke out on a level beyond a single sheivet, so that no one
   lower court had full jusrisdiction over the sho'alim.

>                             did they vote on specific cases or general
> rules? how strong was their sense of Stare Decisis? What was the role
> of the sanhedrin of the shevet and which cases went where?

Good questions. Didn't want to bury them under my tangent, so I am
quoting in full.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Here is the test to find whether your mission
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