BB made a comment in another about rabbis:
It got me thinking that it might be interesting to discuss the role of a rabbi. Clearly there's some distinction to be made between a rabbi as a halachist vs a rabbi in any other role, where the needs of the community have shifted over time. What I'd like to suggest is that the classical role of rabbi ought not be the career of the rabbi, that the career rabbi is fulfilling other needs of the community and, in an almost kabbalistic sense, ought to work to reverse the need for a career rabbi, thus in a sense taking upon himself the Sisyphean project of removing the need for his own occupation. That is to say that I think a major goal for a pulpit rabbi ought to be enabling congregants to perform the majority of functions that have developed as a matter of shifts in culture and literacy within the Jewish community so that a rabbi as such is no longer needed. I am not certain that, even through the cumulative efforts of all rabbis, that goal could ever be reached.
More concretely, a rabbi is not required for bikkur cholim, to leyn, to drash, to serve as baal tefilah or to do any number of things. It seems reasonable to think that a rabbi would at some time do each of the above, but it isn't the job of the rabbi-as-rabbi to do any of this. Rabbi-as-rabbi can be less of an issue in the liberal community, but the Sisyphean nature of the project is all the more evident there. In both cases I think it should still be the responsibility of a career rabbi to educate not just on practical halachah, but working with text in order to engage in dialogue with it oneself. The end result will vary depending on the flavor of Judaism, and where the rabbi-as-rabbi is more relevant, while he may not write himself out, he at least reduces the frequency with which he's going to be called upon to serve in that role.
At the same time, there are some shifts that seem to make certain, more universal practices, better limited to rabbis. Performing marriages has a secular component as well as a Jewish component. That's not to say that a non-rabbi couldn't become a JoP and perform a marriage that is acceptable according to both halachah and secular law. It's not to say either that performing marriages should be considered a full-time job. As a matter of convenience it makes sense to think that rabbis would continue to perform marriages and that empowering other people to perform marriages would be a bit unnecessary. At the very least there are other, more pressing functions to be taught and encouraged.
An additional layer of the career rabbi's duties comes from the fact that many people aren't yet even at the point where they'd want to work toward being a part of the community's displacing of the rabbi, and so there's the further need to inspire people, to help them connect with Judaism in an empowered way so that this seems like a worthwhile goal for themselves. But even if not all of a particular congregation feels this way, at least there will be some people who want to displace the rabbi. Certainly in a given congregation there will probably be members who want to get rid of the current rabbi, but that is a separate issue.
I realize that the needs of different communities vary. The degree to which a rabbi is called upon to poskin for the community and the degree to which his community are living engaged Jewish lives both alter what is needed. For more liberal communities what I've stated seems very true to me. For less liberal communities I'm not sure that's the case so much. The problem in more conservative communities seems to be that mindsets have developed by which very little can be answered without consulting the rabbi. Still, the idea of empowering the congregation seems to be the same and perhaps reaching the goal equally difficult. And even in liberal communities, I think the rabbi should be empowering people to engage with halachic sources. It's just what comes about as a result of that which might vary.
Those are some of my current thoughts. It does seem to me that Judaism's going through some major shifts right now, both the ideological structure that unite and divide individual Jews as well as the way in which individual Jews identify with those structures. I don't think it's very clear what the Jewish community will look like in 50 years or what the role of rabbi will entail. I do think it's all worth pondering over.
What do you all think?
BB said:
It got me thinking that it might be interesting to discuss the role of a rabbi. Clearly there's some distinction to be made between a rabbi as a halachist vs a rabbi in any other role, where the needs of the community have shifted over time. What I'd like to suggest is that the classical role of rabbi ought not be the career of the rabbi, that the career rabbi is fulfilling other needs of the community and, in an almost kabbalistic sense, ought to work to reverse the need for a career rabbi, thus in a sense taking upon himself the Sisyphean project of removing the need for his own occupation. That is to say that I think a major goal for a pulpit rabbi ought to be enabling congregants to perform the majority of functions that have developed as a matter of shifts in culture and literacy within the Jewish community so that a rabbi as such is no longer needed. I am not certain that, even through the cumulative efforts of all rabbis, that goal could ever be reached.
More concretely, a rabbi is not required for bikkur cholim, to leyn, to drash, to serve as baal tefilah or to do any number of things. It seems reasonable to think that a rabbi would at some time do each of the above, but it isn't the job of the rabbi-as-rabbi to do any of this. Rabbi-as-rabbi can be less of an issue in the liberal community, but the Sisyphean nature of the project is all the more evident there. In both cases I think it should still be the responsibility of a career rabbi to educate not just on practical halachah, but working with text in order to engage in dialogue with it oneself. The end result will vary depending on the flavor of Judaism, and where the rabbi-as-rabbi is more relevant, while he may not write himself out, he at least reduces the frequency with which he's going to be called upon to serve in that role.
At the same time, there are some shifts that seem to make certain, more universal practices, better limited to rabbis. Performing marriages has a secular component as well as a Jewish component. That's not to say that a non-rabbi couldn't become a JoP and perform a marriage that is acceptable according to both halachah and secular law. It's not to say either that performing marriages should be considered a full-time job. As a matter of convenience it makes sense to think that rabbis would continue to perform marriages and that empowering other people to perform marriages would be a bit unnecessary. At the very least there are other, more pressing functions to be taught and encouraged.
An additional layer of the career rabbi's duties comes from the fact that many people aren't yet even at the point where they'd want to work toward being a part of the community's displacing of the rabbi, and so there's the further need to inspire people, to help them connect with Judaism in an empowered way so that this seems like a worthwhile goal for themselves. But even if not all of a particular congregation feels this way, at least there will be some people who want to displace the rabbi. Certainly in a given congregation there will probably be members who want to get rid of the current rabbi, but that is a separate issue.
I realize that the needs of different communities vary. The degree to which a rabbi is called upon to poskin for the community and the degree to which his community are living engaged Jewish lives both alter what is needed. For more liberal communities what I've stated seems very true to me. For less liberal communities I'm not sure that's the case so much. The problem in more conservative communities seems to be that mindsets have developed by which very little can be answered without consulting the rabbi. Still, the idea of empowering the congregation seems to be the same and perhaps reaching the goal equally difficult. And even in liberal communities, I think the rabbi should be empowering people to engage with halachic sources. It's just what comes about as a result of that which might vary.
Those are some of my current thoughts. It does seem to me that Judaism's going through some major shifts right now, both the ideological structure that unite and divide individual Jews as well as the way in which individual Jews identify with those structures. I don't think it's very clear what the Jewish community will look like in 50 years or what the role of rabbi will entail. I do think it's all worth pondering over.
What do you all think?
!!