דברי חיזוק לרבנים (2004)

/ דברי חיזוק לרבנים (2004)

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August 1, 2004

דברי חיזוק לרבנים (2004)

Ki Tetze The Rabbinate

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We at Yeshiva University hardly expect you to be full-fledged posekim (those who rule on Jewish law) and accomplished experts in human relations from the moment you are placed in your first, or even second, position. But your baalebatim do not know — and perhaps do not want to know — this, and so you must be prepared with some guidelines even as you expect to learn much "on the job.Of the many things that ought to be on your agenda regarding your baalebatim, let me mention three. The first obligation of a rabbi is chesed — loving kindness, care, generosity. You will be judged by your menschlichkcit (decency) as much as, or more than, your lomdus (learning).You are not only going to sit in your synagogue office or class- room and dispense wisdom or offer a fine analysis of a halachic text. You will also have to take care of the poor and the single par- ent and the latchkey child. You will have to hear people's problems and counsel them and find help for them. And that is a state of mind, a spiritual mission, and an art — all rolled into one. It will take time, but you will learn it. So, work on yourselves! Both you and your people will benefit.The second thing you must leam is courage — the courage to resist and to stand alone. You are entering a world that is crazy —from the French, ecrase, split or cracked — confronted by new problems even while wrestling with stubborn old ones, full of paradoxes and antinomies and contradic- tions and absurdities — espe- cially those thrown up by sci- ence and technology, such as the potential for humans to direct the future evolution of the species.You will have to consult your rebbeim (teachers) and older colleagues, and some day you may be called on to make such fateful decisions. You will confront a Jewish world disappearing at the margins, with an entrenched secularism that refuses to budge from old and tired for- mulas. You will be faced by young Jews who have …