The first of Jerusalem's three courts, a court of twenty-three. A sage whose teaching was disputed in his town came here first; if the judges had a tradition, they said it, otherwise one went up to the court at the gate of the Azara, then to the Great Sanhedrin in the Lishkat HaGazit. Tiferet Yisrael places it just inside the eastern gate of the Har HaBayit, the one topped by the image of Shushan HaBirah: it sits under the portico, beside the passage of the gate. The judges sit in a half-circle, the wisest in the middle so that he sees them all; two scribes stand before them, and three rows of students sit facing them.
Dimensions
- 23 judges in a half-circle, the wisest in the middle
- two scribes standing
- three rows of students, the first the closest
Sources
Project decisionWhat the texts say: three courts (Sanhedrin 11:2), two of them of twenty-three; Tiferet Yisrael puts this one “inside the eastern gate of the wall of the Har HaBayit”, and Haggahot Ya'avetz names that gate: the one bearing Shushan HaBirah. The Tosefta (Sanhedrin 7:1) says only “one on the Har HaBayit”. The half-circle, the scribes and the students hold for a court of twenty-three as for the great one (Tosafot Yom Tov on Sanhedrin 4:3, citing Rashi). Tour's choice: the south side of the gate, under the double portico (Pesachim 13b), between the wall and the first row of columns; the two tiers and the seats. The Rambam counts twenty-three students per row (Sanhedrin 1:7): the scene shows the three rows, not every student, and reads « לְמַטָּה הֵימֶנָּה » as “further away”. Set aside: Rashi (Sanhedrin 86b) and Bartenura, who put it at the eastern gate of the Ezrat Nashim; the Tosefta, which gives it only three judges.