Sanhedrin

The Sanhedrin was the Jewish legislative and judicial assembly of the ancient land of Israel. Rabbinite tradition describes two classes of these courts: a lesser Sanhedrin of 23 judges that sat as a tribunal in each city, and a single Great Sanhedrin of 71 judges that, among other roles, acted as a supreme court and took appeals from cases the lesser courts had decided. The Great Sanhedrin was presided over by the Nasi, often translated as president, assisted by the Av Beit Din, the chief of the court. In the Second Temple period it met every day except festivals and the sabbath in the Hall of Hewn Stones in the Temple at Jerusalem. After the destruction of the Second Temple and the failure of the Bar Kokhba revolt it moved to Galilee. Its last universally binding decision, the establishment of the Hebrew calendar, dates to 358, and it was disbanded in 425. Later attempts to revive the institution include those of Jacob Berab, the Grand Sanhedrin convened by Napoleon Bonaparte, and modern efforts in Israel.