In Deuteronomy,¹ the Torah speaks of the person who rebels against the Sanhedrin (High Court). We are told that "the man who will act with willfulness, not listening to the Kohen (priest) who stands there to serve the Lord, your G-d, or to the judge, that man shall die."

The Talmudic sages asked,² why does the Torah mention a Kohen in this verse? After all, the Sanhedrin did not have to include any Kohens in its ranks! From these words the rabbis inferred that the Sanhedrin has the right to administer the death penalty only as long as the Kohen is serving G-d in the Holy Temple.

2. Corporeal punishment was only allowed as long as there were rabbis who were ordained by another rabbi with a direct chain of ordination dating back to Moses. When this chain was stopped (by the anti-religious Roman Empire), the Jewish courts do not have the right to impose the Torah's corporeal punishments, nor do they have the right to hand out punitive damage awards. Instead, today's courts only assess monetary loss damages.

The Torah describes a Jewish court as "Elohim",³ which is also G-d's name. The reason for this is because G-d is with the court, and the verdict which is issued by the judges has G-d's seal of approval. However, this only applies when at least one of the judges was ordained by another rabbi with a direct chain of ordination dating back to Moses. For Moses bequeathed from his holiness unto Joshua and the other seventy elders⁴ who in turn bequeathed this holiness to their successors etc.

When Moses complained to G-d, saying that he needed people to assist him in his duties of administering to the needs of the Jewish people, G-d didn't just tell Moses, "Well, why don't you let your disciples help you!" Instead, G-d responded by saying,⁵ "Gather to Me seventy men from the elders of Israel . . and I will increase some of the spirit which is upon you and place it upon them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you."

There is no question that those rabbis who were ordained by Moses and imbued with his spirit (and those whom they ordained thereafter) had greater Divine assistance when executing their duties. For this reason they were allowed to order corporeal or capital punishment, knowing that G-d agreed with the verdict. This cannot be said of every other Jewish judge throughout history.

It is important to note that even after there ceased to be authentically ordained rabbis, the Jewish courts still have the right to mete out corporeal punishment as they see fit, but these aren't the lashes which the Torah mandates.

3. This does not G-d forbid represent any "modification" of the Bible. It simply means that present circumstances do not allow us to perform every single commandment - just as we cannot offer sacrifices without a holy temple.