Q&A: Authority from Below
Authority from Below
Question
Hello Rabbi,
In the last lecture on Torah study, you said in passing that the power of the sages to remove Rabban Gamliel from the presidency came from authority from below, and you said that this is where the idea of authority from below was first introduced.
When I heard that, it suddenly clicked for me that perhaps this is Maimonides' source for the idea that the Sanhedrin can be renewed through the agreement of the sages, just as the head of the Sanhedrin can be removed through the agreement of the sages.
Answer
Possibly, and I think I did note that. But Maimonides bases it on reasoning itself (how ordination would return with the coming of the Messiah), and it does not seem that he has an actual source for it. He also presents it as his own reasoning.
I do not know whether that is where the idea was first introduced, but the debate over the Oven of Akhnai and all the parallel passages I mentioned revolves around authority from below (or human Torah).