ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the development and expansion of extrajudicial powers and with the basis, scope and application of this authority, which permitted its development, adaptation and implementation in autonomous Jewish communities around the world. It examines some specific problems and applications of exigency jurisdiction involving judges, communal representatives, non-Jewish agents and courts, and alternative remedies. While the illustrative incidents do demonstrate a desire to attribute exigency jurisdiction to even the earliest Biblical periods, the actual Rabbinic source for exigency jurisdiction is developed in a series of cases in the Talmud. In the commentaries just discussed, both Baalai haTosafoth and Ramban specify that the authority to impose extrajudicial remedies in order to prevent the populace from transgressing the law is found in the Talmud. Thus while Asheri in his codes quotes the Talmudic passages that the death penalty may be meted out by nonordained judges in case of exigency, in deciding actual cases he was reluctant to permit this practice.
