Yechiel Michel Epstein

“ The President could only empower individuals to act as judges in the Land of Israel, though he himself could judge anywhere. Even were he to judge outside the Land of Israel, he could not levy fines unless the litigants agreed to allow him that power. The Head of the Exile, on the other hand, could empower judges to force appearance of litigants and to issue ruling anywhere in the world, including inside Israel. The only caveat is that his judges could not levy fines in Israel except with the permission of the President and sages of the Land of Israel. ”

“ Additionally, a prophet is not allowed to create a new law or procedure that cannot be derived from the Torah. It must therefore be based on the agreement of all the sages.
As an additional reason, the basic advantage of ordination is to certify that the individual is worthy of occupying the position as judge. If there is a direct line of rabbi to rabbi ordination from Moshe and Yehoshua certainly they know the worthiness of their appointments. Similarly, if all the rabbis in the Land of Israel were to agree on one man this individual must certainly be worthy. ”

“ Section 1 In the current era there is no seated court of less than three judges. A court can even be constructed of lay people, and they can even exercise the same powers as any court, including forcing the defendant (who lives in their city) to present himself before the court. However, in order for this court to be valid, one member must be familiar with Jewish civil law and be able to reasonably weigh opposing arguments and understand how the Torah law would apply to those arguments. ”

“ One must say that the above practice is already assumed by all who take part in a case with one judge, that they realize he is a single judge using his best discernment, and they are accepting his ruling even if it is incorrect. ”

“ The judgment to kill and animal (an ox that gored or an animal that had a sexual sin committed with it) likewise requires 23, as the verse states "the ox is stoned and also the owner will die", which our accepted tradition states is a reference to the animal's death requiring the same legal proceeding as a human's death. Even if one's domesticated lion, bear, or cheetah kill they are judged by a court of 23, since they do not commonly damage. Animals that are not domesticable, such as a snake, do not require a judgment when they kill and even a single individual can kill them. ”

“ Furthermore, the average person always has presumption of good character according to Torah law. Finally, why assume the litigants would choose a sinful person as judge. Therefore, direction to check the fellow judges is simply a meritorious purpose.
Section 8 The ruling of a man who is not learned, is lacking a discerning mind, and is not accepted by the litigants has no legal standing, regardless of the authority that conferred judgeship upon him. One who indirectly assumes judgeship, without communal consent, causes pain to the community and there is no end to his punishment. ”

“ If the city regulates its own official court system the litigants cannot choose their own judges. The fact that this law is often ignored is simply because the Jewish courts today lack the martial force to impose this ruling, but the litigants will one day have to answer before G-d for the righteousness or lack thereof of their substituting their own court for the recognized local court. ”

“ The individual to be ordained does not have to be present at the ceremony, he can be sent a communication that he has been ordained and can act as judge. In regard to the identification of the geographic area called 'the Land of Israel', the Rambam maintains that even the areas conquered by the generation of the Egyptian exile, above those conquered by the generation of the Babylonian exile, are appropriate for ordination. ”

“ Section 7 Although a court of three is a perfectly legitimate court, whenever there are more members it is praiseworthy, even it is eleven judges instead of ten. All who do sit on a court should be scholars who are qualified for this responsibility. Therefore, it behooves a scholar to be aware of whom his fellow judges will be before he agrees to take part, lest he be party to an irresponsible miscarriage of justice (Rambam and Tur.) ”

“ Nowadays we do not have any authority except that which the Czar's government allows. "The law of the land is the law"; however if two litigants should ask us what the ruling would be according to our Torah we are obligated to tell them.
Section 18 Laws of fines, such as those that might occur for robbery or injury, such as double payment and four and fivefold payment (for robbery) ; for a seducer or a rapist; or other similar laws are only adjudicated by expert judges in those areas. ”

“ Section 13 The Rambam further writes that "even a hundred men can be ordained at once. In fact King David once ordained thirty thousand men on one day". We even have a reading of the Gemara Yirushalmi in Chapter 'Chelek' that states he ordained ninety thousand. ”