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Speech

October 18, 1994

The Great Debate: Lessons for Contemporary Spiritual Leadership (1994)

The Rabbinate
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Outline

The Rabbi as Posek and Counselor (1994)

1. The 2 are separate and distinct roles: different goals, methodologies, approaches. Hal'c role = discrete, quantitative, apodictic – יקוב הדין את ההר. Pastoral role = fluid, qualitative, situational. Yet, overlap... Moreover, can learn one from the other. So, will speak about what Rabbi as counselor can learn from his Hal'c background, and vice-versa: what, as Posek he can adapt from his pastoral role. 2. What Rabbi as Counselor can learn from his Role as Posek. a) Take your people seriously
The Rabbinate

Speech

The Rabbi as Spiritual Leader

The following comments refer mainly to those who are professionally involved in melekhet ha-kodesh (sacred activity). As one who has been deeply immersed in this activity for well over twenty-five years, I think I understand some of the problems a rabbi faces. I specifically address myself to the internal psychological tensions that afflict a rabbi, tensions that could become a source of creativity but also are reason for great anguish and moral torment. If there is one clearly identifiable mood that looms above all others as a threat to the effectiveness, happiness, and even sanity of a committed Rav in this last quarter or a century, it is... frustration. There is nothing quite as noxiously potent as frustration in defeating a rabbi, and in robbing him of his inspiration, his ability to function, and his idealism. I can think of no better paradigm of this dangerous defeatism than the story of Elijah in the famous passage in Kings I:19. The evil queen, Jezebel swears that she will kill the prophet. Elijah retreats into the desert to think. He sits under a tree - and he gives up: vayish'al et nafsho la-mut. Vayomer rav atah — “enough! Now take my life!” A spiritual leader who is prevented from leading spiritually sees no point to life. The emptiness is a fate worse than death. His audience has evaporated, his admonitions fall on deaf ears, his miraculous achievements fail to impress these obdurate Jews, and now they want to kill him. Well, let them! His prophetic mission is stillborn, he is a frustrated and defeated and desperate man, and he might as well resign and give up the ghost. But God will not accommodate Elijah. An angel feeds him and sends him on a forty-day and forty-night trek to Mount Horeb. Elijah sleeps in a cave, and the devar Hashem comes to Elijah and inquires: mah lekha poh Eliyahu - what are you doing here, Elijah? His pathetic plaint is poured out, and the gall and the bitterness still affect us across the centuries: vayomer kano kineiti la-Has…
The Rabbinate

Book

The Spirit of the Rabbinate (2010)

The Rabbinate today has fallen upon hard times. In the last year or two, there have appeared a number of articles announcing the imminent demise of the Rabbinate, one of the greatest of Jewish religious institutions. Its functions have been taken over, one by one, by others – the Roshei Yeshivah and the professors, the fundraisers and the social workers – and the Rabbi has become a vestigial functionary, a charming anachronism. Sooner or later, the community will manage very well without him, perhaps devising some other functionary to preside over synagogue services. Now, I do not wish to address myself specifically to this question of the future of the Rabbinate. "I am neither a prophet, nor the son of a prophet." Besides, the Talmud makes some un-flattering remarks about those who pretend to the mantle of the seer. Furthermore, our loyalty to Torah unquestionably tran-scends our loyalty to the Rabbinate, and if Judaism can get along without professional Rabbis in the future —as it has in the past — so be it. I may be sad at such morbid prospects, but not crushed.’ This particular address was not delivered at a Chag HaSemikhah, as are the others in this volume. What follows is adapted from an address at the Anglo-Jewish Preachers Conference held in Manchester in 1968, and was published by the Conference.However, I honestly do not believe the grim prognosis. As Mark Twain once said, upon reading an announcement of his death in the morning newspapers, "I have read my obituary and believe it is much exaggerated."It is, of course, true that the Rabbinate is in trouble —and it is in greater trouble in Israel than in the English-speaking countries (although I shall confine my remarks to our communities in the Diaspora). 1 believe we have slipped into a rut, but we are not lost. We are in many ways stricken, but not irreversibly. 1 submit that we still can recapture our commanding role as spiritual leaders and effective guides if we bestir ourselves —before it is too lat…
The Rabbinate