In addition to fixing the ritual observances for the first two quarters of the day, the Great Assembly engaged in legislative proceedings, making laws as summarized in the
Book of Nehemiah. Tradition therefore ascribed to it the character of a chief magistracy, and its members, or rather its leaders, including the prophets of that time, were regarded as the authors of other obligatory rules. These leaders of post-exilic Israel in the Persian period were called the "men of the Great Assembly" because it was generally assumed that all those who then acted as leaders had been members of the memorable gathering held on the 24th of Tishri, 444 BC. Although the assembly itself convened only on a single day, its leaders were designated in tradition as regular members of the Great Assembly. This explains the fact that the references speak almost exclusively of "the men of the Great Assembly", the allusions to the "Great Assembly" itself being very rare, and sometimes based on error. As certain institutions assumed to have been established in the early
Second Temple period were ascribed to Ezra, so others of them were ascribed to the "men of the Great Assembly". There is no difference between the two classes of institutions so far as origin is concerned. In some cases Ezra (the great scribe and the leader of the Great Assembly) is mentioned as the author, in others the entire Great Assembly mentioned; in all cases the Assembly with Ezra at its head must be thought of as the real authors. In traditional literature, however, a distinction was generally drawn between the institutions of Ezra and those of the men of the Great Assembly, so that they figured separately. But it is not surprising, after what has been said above, that in the
Tanhuma the "
Tikkunei Soferim" (called also "Tikkunei Ezra") should be ascribed to the men of the Great Assembly, since the author of the passage in question identified the Soferim (i.e., Ezra and his successors) with them. The following rulings were ascribed to the men of the Great Assembly: • They included the books of Ezekiel, Daniel, Esther, and the
Twelve Minor Prophets in the Biblical canon; this is the only possible explanation of the
baraita that they "wrote" those books. Ezekiel, Daniel and Esther—which were composed outside Israel—had to be accepted by the Great Assembly in order to merit inclusion. The grouping of the Minor Prophets was completed by the works of the three post-exilic prophets, who were themselves members of the Great Assembly. In this source, Ezra and Nehemiah (who were members of the Great Assembly) are mentioned as the last biblical writers (of the books named after them as well as
Chronicles); while according to
II Maccabees Nehemiah also collected a number of the books of the Bible. • According to one opinion, they introduced the triple classification of the oral law into the branches of midrash, halakhot, and aggadot. This view is noteworthy as showing that the later representatives of tradition traced the origin of their science to the earliest authorities, the immediate successors of the Prophets. The men of the Great Assembly, therefore, not only completed the canon, but introduced the scientific treatment of tradition. • They introduced the Feast of
Purim and determined the days on which it should be celebrated. the blessings, and the various forms of
kedushah and
havdalah prayers. was made by the men of the Great Assembly. • An
aggadic ruling on biblical stories beginning with the phrase "Va-yehi bayamim" (And it came to pass in those days) is designated by
Johanan bar Nappaha, or his pupil
Levi II, as a "tradition of the men of the Great Assembly". This is merely another way of saying, as is stated elsewhere in reference to the same ruling, that it had been brought as a tradition from the Babylonian exile. There are references also to other aggadic traditions of this kind. •
Joshua ben Levi ascribes in an original way to the men of the Great Assembly the merit of having provided for all time for the making of copies of the Bible, tefillin, and mezuzot, stating that they instituted twenty-four fasts to ensure that wealth would not be acquired by copyists, who would cease to copy if they became rich. • The Mishnah ascribes the following teaching to the men of the Great Assembly: "Be patient in judgment; have many pupils; put a fence about the Torah." This aphorism, ascribed to an entire body of men, can only be interpreted as expressing their spirit and tendency, yet it must have been formulated by some individual, probably one of them. Like most of the first chapter of Avot, this passage is addressed to the teachers and spiritual leaders rather than to the people. These principles show commonalities with the spirit of Ezra's teaching on one hand, and with the later judicial philosophy of the Pharisees on the other hand. According to
Sherira Gaon, the extensive traditions of the
Oral Torah (first recorded in the
Mishnah) were known by the Great Assembly, but transmitted orally from generation to generation, until eventually being recorded in the names of later sages. ==Modern scholarship==