A reconstituted Sanhedrin has issued a ruling asking Heaven to reveal the Mashiach and rebuild the Temple. But the classical sources draw a sharp line the court has crossed.

When a reconstituted Sanhedrin issues a formal ruling that asks Heaven to reveal the Mashiach (Messiah), clear every obstacle to the Beit HaMikdash (Holy Temple), restore prophecy, and remove every hostile force from the Land of Israel, the first question is whether the court has stayed within the boundaries the Torah and the Sages set for it. The answer determines everything else: whether the ruling carries the weight of halakhah (Jewish law), or whether it has stepped into territory no court was ever authorized to enter.

What the Sources Actually Assign to the Court

The classical sources are not vague on this point. Mishnah Sanhedrin 1:5 lists the matters that belong exclusively to the Great Sanhedrin of seventy-one judges. The court judges an entire tribe that has sinned. It judges a false prophet. It judges a High Priest in a capital case. It authorizes an optional war. It expands the boundaries of Jerusalem or the Temple courtyards. It appoints lesser courts for the tribes. It declares a city an ir hanidachat (idolatrous city). It intercalates the year and thereby fixes the calendar.

These are concrete judicial and national functions. They concern law, judgment, and the ordered life of the people under the Torah. Nowhere in that list — nor in the Rambam’s codification of it — does the court receive authority to issue a psak (binding ruling) that obligates Heaven to bring the Mashiach or to rebuild the Temple.

The “It Is Not in Heaven” Argument, and Its Real Scope

The ruling rests its claim on a different foundation: the principle that a court below binds the court above, drawn primarily from the story of the Oven of Achnai in Bava Metzia 59b. There, Rabbi Eliezer and the majority of the Sages dispute a point of ritual law. Miracles occur. A heavenly voice declares that the halakhah follows Rabbi Eliezer. Rabbi Yehoshua rises and declares Lo bashamayim hi — “It is not in Heaven” (Deuteronomy 30:12). The Gemara explains that once the Torah was given at Sinai, the........

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