Q&A: Authority
Authority
Question
I seem to remember that the Rabbi wrote (though I may be mistaken, either in my understanding or in the content) that the authority of the Sages is limited to Jewish law, and that it is similar to the authority of the Knesset to legislate laws, which everyone must obey even if the ordinary citizen thinks the legislator is mistaken.
My question is: what would happen if there were a revolution and the people no longer wanted the authority of the legislator? Or in a case where 90 percent of the Jewish people did not accept the authority of the Sages in Jewish law—where would the Sages derive their authority from in such a situation?
Answer
I don’t have an answer to that question, but you need to distinguish between two different cases:
The fundamental authority is that of the Great Court, and it derives its force from “do not deviate.” Here, public consent is not needed. The authority of the Talmud, whose sages were not ordained and were not the Great Court, derives its force from public acceptance. But that acceptance has already been given. You are asking what happens if we retract it, and now the majority of the public decides that it no longer accepts their authority?
Here it is of course important to say that we are talking about a majority of the public that is committed to Jewish law. Those who are not committed to Jewish law do not count. If there were such a majority, then perhaps the Sages really would no longer have authority. And perhaps this is comparable to a decree that spread and was later nullified, which is no longer nullified afterward—or according to Maimonides, it can be nullified, but only by a religious court.
Discussion on Answer
It is definitely possible. The Sages are not the Holy One, blessed be He, and their authority derives from public acceptance. The public that accepted them can also revoke that acceptance and transfer the authority to some other body instead (such as a rabbi or rabbis in our generation). That would be no less committed to Jewish law.
How can there be a majority that is committed to Jewish law but not committed to the Sages?
Isn’t commitment to Jewish law identical with commitment to the Sages?