“Binding and loosing is originally a Jewish Mishnaic phrase also mentioned in the New Testament, as well as in the Targum. In usage, to bind and to loose simply means to forbid by an indisputable authority and to permit by an indisputable authority. The Targum to a particular Psalm implies that these actions were considered to be as effectual as the spell of an enchanter. The poseks had, by virtue of their ordination, the power of deciding disputes relating to Jewish law. Hence, the difference between the two main schools of thought in early classical Judaism were summed up by the phrase the school of Shammai binds; the school of Hillel looses. Theoretically, however, the authority of the poseks proceeded from the Sanhedrin, and there is, therefore, a Talmudic statement that there were three decisions made by the lower house of judgment (the Sanhedrin) to which the upper house of… Read moreWhatever you Bind and Loose