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I'm trying to understand the "chain of command" in the story of Megillat Ester, and I see Ester as a prophetess, Mordechai as a prophet and a sage but what's missing is the 70 elders - the Sanhedrin.

The lives of all Jews were at stake but I don't recall the decisions being made by the big council.

Was the Sanhedrin functioning in the times of Purim and didn't Mordechai need its agreement on his decrees?

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  • Have you looked at Megillah 7a, של��ה להם אסתר לחכמים קבעוני לדורות and כתבוני לדורות?
    – Meir
    Commented Mar 24, 2019 at 19:57
  • @Meir That was afterparty if I'm right, I was talking about the events of Purim itself
    – Al Berko
    Commented Mar 24, 2019 at 19:59
  • What would they have needed the Sanhedrin for, then? They're not needed in order to ratify an individual chacham's decisions in halacha, unless a machlokes develops.
    – Meir
    Commented Mar 24, 2019 at 20:03
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    Wouldn't the Sanhedrin have been in Yerushalaim, not Shushan? Even if they where in Nahardah, that's still very far from Shushan.
    – Mordechai
    Commented Nov 28, 2019 at 20:59
  • Perhaps Mordechai wrote them off as they participated in the feast?
    – Clint Eastwood
    Commented Jan 17 at 18:56

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Regarding where the Sanhedrin had been during the Purim events, presumably they had not all survived the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash and the pillaging of Nevuchadnezzar which had occurred less then 60 years before King Achashverosh's feast.

Although, there were remnants of the Sanhedrin, namely Mordecai. in the Yaaros Devash Rabbi Yonason Aibshitz writes that Mordecai had been the leader of the Sanhedrin.

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