With the development of the chief rabbinate, many hundreds of rabbis who received the title of 'rabbi' are added every year. What is the degree and why do you even need it? • First article in the series
It's no secret that many people work in a profession they never thought about. I'm not talking about a specific industry, but about well-known studies that indicate that the majority of the public ends up, in the end, working in a field that they didn't learn about and didn't think about.
Among the many professions, the law profession stands out. A study conducted in recent years revealed that one out of every 160 people (approximately) is a lawyer.
Why do you need so many?
I think there are two opposite answers: one, that you don't really need to, but that it's just that it's a desirable profession that apparently promises a lot of money in return (some lawyers charge thousands of shekels per hour of work...)
And the second is that the more lawyers there are, the more we need them, to drag the discussions and decisions into more and more discussions...
Be that as it may, the rabbinical field has also gained great popularity in recent years, if forty years ago you had to pray and beg for a rabbi to come live in a remote area - today almost every moshav has a rabbi or several rabbis.
Every year, many thousands are tested in the chief rabbinical exams and hundreds of them receive a certified rabbinical degree. And I wasn't talking at all about the field of kosher supervisors...
So before we talk about the number, let's talk about the domain:
Exactly 3,333 years ago, according to Jewish tradition, we received the Torah from our Lord Moses at Mount Sinai.
Forty years later - on the day of Moses' death - he gave the Torah book to the Israelites, which includes all the laws and commandments that were told to him by the Creator. These are the 'Five Pentacles of the Torah' during the following centuries, the prophets and the scriptures were written, which are mainly stories and prophecies - but they are part of the written Torah.
Apart from this, many more laws and details were passed down through Moses, called the 'Oral Torah'. This tradition was passed down from generation to generation, but it was only during the time of Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi about two thousand years ago that they began to write it down, mainly so that the Oral Torah would not be forgotten.
And from then until today, millions (!) of books have been added to the Jewish bookcase. The books of thought and thought, halacha and practice, Kabbalah and Hasidism, morality and legend - all of which are interpretations and explanations of the five Pentacles of the Torah.
So what is a rabbi supposed to know?
The truth is that even if we study all our lives, we will not be able to reach even a small part of the Torah, and therefore the Chief Rabbinate Council decided on specific areas that must be studied in order to receive certification.
These are fourteen attractive and practical topics and areas, among them:
Hupa and Kiddoshin, Shabbat laws, kosher laws, prayer laws, blessings and synagogue, mourning laws and more.
It is required to study the material, from the primary sources to the very books of Halacha written in the last century.
Only after 6 difficult exams, which require concentration and years of study, does the examinee receive the initial 'certified rabbi' title, which gives him the opportunity to serve as a rabbi in the neighborhood.
After passing three additional tests, he is allowed to serve as a regional rabbi or rabbi, and only after passing 12 tests and a personal oral test with members of the Chief Rabbinate Council, he can run for the position of city rabbi...
It turns out that even in order to get an (official) rabbi degree, years of study and certification are needed, no less than for a law degree.
And as for the question we started with - why do we need so many rabbis? We will answer it in the next chapter, in which we will also answer the question of how much the rabbi earns for his work...
- The first chapter is dedicated to the exaltation of the soul of Rabbi Shlomo Shloush, the chief rabbi of Haifa, in honor of the day of his passing, today - 11 Cheshon.
The author, Rabbi Yehuda Ginzburg, is qualified as a city rabbi since 2015 and serves as a rabbi in the Hichal Segal community in the French Carmel.
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Thank you very much, fascinating topic and excellent presentation
The need for rabbis and Orthodox in particular is in steep decline. Nearly 50% of marriages are not in the rabbinate and the ultra-orthodox community in general does not consume the rabbinate but gets along with its institutions.
There is no justification for the inflation of rabbis in Haifa, being a city with a secular majority, a large part of which radiates progressive currents. The religious and ultra-Orthodox make up barely 10% of its population