Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
A rabbi (/ ˈ r æ b aɪ /; Hebrew: רַבִּי, romanized: rabbī) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. [1] [2] One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as semikha—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud.
Rav (or Rab, Modern Hebrew: רב ) is the Hebrew generic term for a person who teaches Torah or is a Jewish spiritual guide or a rabbi. For example, Pirkei Avot (in the Talmud) states (1:6) that: (..) Joshua ben Perachiah says, "Set up a teacher [RaB] for yourself. And get yourself a friend [HaBeR]. And give everybody the benefit of the ...
Rabbinic Jewish literature is predicated on the belief that the Written Law cannot be properly understood without recourse to the Oral Law (the Mishnah). Much rabbinic Jewish literature concerns specifying what behavior is sanctioned by the law; this body of interpretations is called halakha (the way).
The title ribbi (or "rabbi") was reserved for those with semikhah. The sages of the Babylonian Jewish community had a similar religious education, but without the semikhah ceremony they were called rav. The Talmud also relates that one can obtain the title of rabbi by those to whom he teaches or counsels.
The word Rabbi means "master" and is traditionally used for a religious teacher. In English in particular, it came to be commonly used to refer to any ordained Jewish scholar. In Israel, among the Haredim, Rabbi can be used colloquially interchangeably with the Yiddish Reb, and is used as a friendly title, similar to calling someone "Sir".
In practical terms, Jewish communities and individuals commonly proffer allegiance to the authority of the rabbi they have chosen. Such a rabbinic leader is sometimes called the "Master of the Locale" (mara d'atra). [12] Jewish individuals may acknowledge the authority of other rabbis but will defer legal decisions to the mara d'atra. [13]
An ordinary communal rabbi, or rebbe in Yiddish, is sometimes distinct from a rav (/ ˈ r æ v /, also pronounced rov / ˈ r ɒ v / by Jews of Eastern European or Russian origin), who is a more authoritative halakhic decider. A significant function of a rav is to answer questions of halakha (the corpus of Jewish law), but he is not as ...
A male or female rabbi may have a male spouse but, as women and openly gay men were prohibited from the rabbinate for most of Jewish history, there has historically been no specific term for the male spouse of a rabbi. In liberal denominations of Judaism, a rabbi married to another rabbi would be both a rabbi and a rebbetzin.