The ''av beit din'' (),

abbreviated An abbreviation () is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method including shortening, contraction, initialism (which includes acronym), or crasis. An abbreviation may be a shortened form of a word, usually ended with a trailing per ...

( ''avad''), was the second-highest-ranking member of the

Sanhedrin The Sanhedrin (Hebrew and Middle Aramaic , a loanword from , 'assembly,' 'sitting together,' hence ' assembly' or 'council') was a Jewish legislative and judicial assembly of either 23 or 70 elders, existing at both a local and central level i ...

during the

Second Temple period The Second Temple period or post-exilic period in Jewish history denotes the approximately 600 years (516 BCE – 70 CE) during which the Second Temple stood in the city of Jerusalem. It began with the return to Zion and subsequent reconstructio ...

and served as an assistant to the nasi. The av beit din was known as the "Master of the Court;" he was considered the most learned and important of these seventy members.

Menahem the Essene Menahem the EsseneJewishencyclopedia
MENAHEM THE ESSENE article () ...

served as av beit din in the 1st century BCE before abdicating to "serve the King" in 20 BCE. The

House of Shammai The House of Hillel (Beit Hillel) and House of Shammai (Beit Shammai) were, among Jewish scholars, two schools of thought during the period of tannaim, named after the sages Hillel and Shammai (of the last century BCE and the early 1st century ...

attained complete ascendency over the Sanhedrin from 9 CE until

Gamaliel Gamaliel the Elder (; also spelled Gamliel; ''Rabban Gamlīʾēl hazZāqēn''; ''Gamaliēl ho Presbýteros''), or Rabban Gamaliel I, was a leading authority in the Sanhedrin in the early first century CE. He was the son of Simeon ben Hillel a ...

became nasi in 30 CE. The post of av beit din was eventually filled since the

Babylonian Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewi ...

states that

Joshua ben Hananiah Joshua ben Hananiah ( ''Yəhōšūaʿ ben Ḥănanyā''; d. 131 CE), also known as Rabbi Yehoshua, was a leading tanna of the first half-century following the destruction of the Second Temple. He is the eighth-most-frequently mentioned sage in t ...

was the av beit din in Baba Kamma 74b and Nathan the Babylonian was av beit din in

Horayot Horayot (; "Decisions") is a Masekhet, tractate in Nezikin, Seder Nezikin in the Talmud. In the Mishnah, this is the tenth and last tractate in Nezikin, the ninth tractate in the Babylonian Talmud, and the eighth in the Jerusalem Talmud. It cons ...

13b in the

. The

Jerusalem Talmud The Jerusalem Talmud (, often for short) or Palestinian Talmud, also known as the Talmud of the Land of Israel, is a collection of rabbinic notes on the second-century Jewish oral tradition known as the Mishnah. Naming this version of the Talm ...

tells the story of how

Gamaliel II Rabban Gamaliel II (also spelled Gamliel; ; before –) was a rabbi from the second generation of tannaim. He was the first person to lead the Sanhedrin as '' nasi'' after the fall of the Second Temple in 70 CE. He was the son of Shimon ben G ...

was deposed and

Eleazar ben Azariah Eleazar ben Azariah () was a 1st-century CE Jewish tanna, i.e. Mishnaic sage. He was of the second generation and a junior contemporary of Gamaliel II, Eliezer b. Hyrcanus, Joshua b. Hananiah, and Akiva. Biography He was a kohen who traced ...

replaced him as Nasi. After Gamaliel was reinstated, Eleazar ben Azariah was made av beit din. The parallel story in the Babylonian Talmud has Eleazar ben Azariah remaining as a co-nasi with Gamaliel.

Modern usage

In modern times the title is often used as an honorific for the presiding

rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

of a beth din "rabbinical court", who is typically the salaried rabbi of the local Jewish community and usually a

posek In Jewish law, a ''posek'' ( , pl. ''poskim'', ) is a legal scholar who determines the application of ''halakha'', the Jewish religious laws derived from the written and Oral Torah, in cases of Jewish law where previous authorities are incon ...

or "decisor" of

Halakha ''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also Romanization of Hebrew, transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Judaism, Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Torah, Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is ...

. It is also abbreviated as ''avad'' when it is after the name of the

Chief Rabbi Chief Rabbi () is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities. Since 1911, through a capitulation by Ben-Zion Meir ...

of a national Jewish community. It can also refer to the most senior member of the court. Although the title av beit din historically is higher than that of '' rosh beit din'', the rankings are sometimes reversed.For cRc, R'Schwartz is #1 as Rosh, whereas for Beth Din of America, he is #1 as ABD: The London Beth Din specifically addresses this, saying: "The Chief Rabbi formally holds the title of Av Beth Din" but that "Due to his extensive workload as well as convention of his office" he's "not generally personally involved;" the rosh beth din runs the court.

Rosh Beit Din

The holder of the title rosh beth din (, abbreviated ''ravad'') is often the person to whom outsiders look for rulings. In 1934, Yehezkel Abramsky was given this title. Federation of Synagogues' Yisroel Yaakov Lichtenstein used this title when he published a major response in 2009, even though he was ''ABD''. In smaller communities, the ''avad'' also serves as the ''ravad''.

References

{{Reflist Ancient Israel and Judah Jewish courts and civil law Orthodox rabbinic roles and titles Sanhedrin