Insight Israel, Vol. 3, No. 3, December 2002
Dear Friends,
Ms. Bambi Sheleg received the Schechter Institute’s Liebhaber Prize for Religious Tolerance in 1998. She is a well-known Israeli journalist and the editor of Eretz Aheret, a respected Israeli monthly. She recently asked Rabbi Golinkin to contribute an article on “the ideal rabbi today” for a symposium in the January 2003 issue of Eretz Aheret. What follows is an English translation of that article along with footnotes not found in the Hebrew original. – Linda Price
The rabbinate and even the term rabbi have changed constantly during the last two millennia. Over the course of the generations, the rabbi was referred to as haver (scholar), moreh tzedek (teacher of righteousness), hakham (sage), talmid (student), marbitz Torah (disseminator of Torah), gaon, moreinu (our teacher) and manhig (leader). Thus, for example, in the 13th century, Rabbi Menahem Ha’meiri wrote in his introduction to Pirkei Avot (Pereg edition, Jerusalem, 1964, pp. 52-53) that in the period of the Geonim (ca. 500-1000), one who knew three tractates of the Talmud was called hakham, one who knew four tractates was called rav, while the Geonim “knew the entire Talmud by heart”.
The rabbi’s role also evolved continuously. The rabbi filled various roles at different times and in different countries: dayan (rabbinical judge), posek (decisor of Jewish law), darshan (preacher), teacher, rosh yeshiva (head of an academy), one who performs Jewish religious divorces and halitzot (exemptions from levirate marriages) and conversions to Judaism, leader of prayer services, the person who reads from the Torah and blows the shofar, an enactor of rabbinic decrees, one who declares public fast days, the representative of the community and other functions. In a historical survey of the rabbinate, Rabbi Gilbert Rosenthal concluded: “In sum, the rabbi was truly the communal factotum and it would be an error to assume that only the modern rabbi functions on all levels”.(1)
However, in this article, we will not focus on the image of the rabbi in the past, but rather attempt to sketch ten characteristics of today’s ideal rabbi.
This broad range of studies was also reflected in the ordination certificates awarded by the rabbinical seminaries. For example, the ordination certificate issued by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1913 stated: “So-and-so learned diligently in our Bet Midrash (house of study) and increased his knowledge in Bible, Gemara, Rashi and Tosefot, codes and all other areas of Jewish Studies…”.(6) Similar wording is found in the ordination certificate issued by the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem since its establishment in 1984: “So-and-so has learned diligently all branches of Jewish Studies in our Bet Midrash during the last four years…”.
Most rabbis in Israel today have not studied in a university nor even received a matriculation certificate from high school. This not only affects their ability to understand the Torah – as the Vilna Gaon stated – but also damages their ability to communicate with a large segment of the Israeli public who have received matriculation certificates and studied at a university.
In other words, a rabbi who is condescending to his congregation and to the public, forgets all that he has learned. An ideal rabbi must be involved with the public at large and have contact with rabbis and Jews from all streams in Judaism: Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, as well as secular Jews. A rabbi who places himself on a tall dais and cuts himself off from various parts of the Jewish people prevents himself from having an influence and creates a buffer between himself and the public at large whom he is supposed to be serving.
It is true that in fifteenth century Germany, rabbis only preached on Shabbat Hagadol, immediately before Passover and Shabbat Shuvah, between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (see the introduction to Minhagei Maharil), but in the early 17th century, we begin to hear of rabbis who preach “each and every Shabbat”.(8) The ideal rabbi must deliver a sermon on every Shabbat and festival as well as at life-cycle events. The sermon gives him an opportunity to “interpret” the weekly Torah portion or the festival or the life-cycle event for the “masses” that are often far-removed from that festival or event.
All of the ideal qualities cited above are reflected in the goals and curriculum of the Schechter Institute’s Rabbinical School, which is affiliated with the Masorti/Conservative movement and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. This is because the Schechter Institute is a spiritual heir of the rabbinical seminaries in Europe and the United States that wholeheartedly embraced part or all of the above ideals. The seminaries in Europe served the neo-Orthodox, Positive Historical (Conservative) and Reform movements (Berlin, Breslau and the Hochschule) and the rabbis they ordained led several generations of Jews in Western Europe. In the United States, Conservative seminaries (the Jewish Theological Seminary and later, the University of Judaism in Los Angeles) were established, as was a Reform seminary (Hebrew Union College). In Israel, the Schechter Institute (Conservative) and Hebrew Union College (Reform) were set up, but unfortunately, there is still no Orthodox rabbinical seminary in the United States or in Israel.
Yeshiva University in New York has an ordination program as well as a Graduate School of Jewish Studies, but the two are totally unconnected! In 1933, there was a serious attempt to transfer the Orthodox Hildesheimer Seminary from Berlin to Jerusalem, but Rabbi Hayyim Ozer Grodzenski, an ultra-Orthodox rabbi in Vilna, thwarted it and, as a result, that renowned Bet Midrash was destroyed during the Holocaust and no successor to it emerged in Israel.(13) The result is that there is no Orthodox rabbinical institution in Israel that advocates all of the above ideals.
There is no question that the State of Israel needs rabbinical seminaries for Orthodox rabbis, which combine study of the Talmud and codes with all of the other essential things cited above. However, this is “a twisted thing that can be made straight” (cf. Ecclesiastes 1:15). I hope and pray that an Orthodox rabbinical seminary will be established in Israel in the near future, which, like the Schechter Institute and Hebrew Union College, will ordain rabbis with a broad education who are capable of communicating with all sectors of the Jewish people today.
Notes
All four volumes of Rabbi Prof. David Golinkin’s Responsa In A Moment – Halakhic Responses to Contemporary Issues as well as other books by the author are available for purchase from the Schocken-JTS Press Bookstore.
David Golinkin is President of The Schechter Institutes, Inc. and President Emeritus of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies. For twenty years he served as Chair of the Va’ad Halakhah (Law Committee) of the Rabbinical Assembly which gives halakhic guidance to the Masorti Movement in Israel. He is the founder and director of the Institute of Applied Halakhah at Schechter and also directs the Center for Women in Jewish Law. Rabbi Professor Golinkin made aliyah in 1972, earning a BA in Jewish History and two teaching certificates from The Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He received an MA in Rabbinics and a PhD in Talmud from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America where he was also ordained as Rabbi. For a complete bio click here.