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According to the Meiri, Massekhet Sanhedrin should be placed first in the Order of Nezikin – damages. The logic behind this order is that it seems appropriate to place the rules regulating the appointment and establishment of judges prior to those tractates whose focus is the laws that the judges will apply to different cases. Nevertheless, the accepted order of the tractates has Massekhet Sanhedrin following Massekhet Bava Batra, whose final Mishna (see Bava Batra daf 176) closes with the statement made by Rabbi Yishmael who recommended that anyone who wants to develop his intelligence should study the monetary laws. Thus, the first Mishna in Massekhet Sanhedrin begins with the words dinei mamonot – “the monetary laws.”
We begin our new masechta with a review of Rabbinic legal court structures.