What I said

This is more or less what I said as my presentation in the interview process for admission to the college. I say more or less because my pedagogic style is whenever it is possible to have a transcript of what I will say if I suffer an attack of nerves, but then I ad-lib. So I cannot swear that this is exactly what I said:

The Role of the Rabbi

I have chosen to speak about the first of the suggested options, ‘the role of the rabbi’. But I also want to extent the topic to include the role of the leader in Judaism because whatever else a rabbi might be, she or he is a leader.

In our tradition, both in the Biblical and in Classical Rabbinic texts we have lots of models for leadership the example I want to use as my jumping off point is a somewhat surprising one the dispute between Moses and Korach (Numbers 16):

‘And Korach took…’ The Biblical text fails to mention what Korach took, however the Midrash (Barmidbar Rabbah 18:1) explains that Korach and his group brought an entirely blue tallit before Moses and asked him if it still required an additional blue tassel to be attached to it.

In effect Korach and his company were asking why do the people of Israel need leaders anyway? And despite God’s reaction to their actions it remains a good question. And one I will return to.

We in this room face an additional problem, we are not just interested in the role of the rabbi in general but we are, or at least we should be interested in ‘the role of rabbi in Non-Orthodox Judaism’ in particular.

Whereas the role of the orthodox rabbi is clear, at least when viewed from the outside. The situation for Reform and Liberal Rabbis is more opaque. But I believe that the rabbi has three main roles. He or she should be an educator, a facilitator, and spiritual role model.

The role of educator is relatively straight forward our rabbis (we) need to present as wide range of subjects (although within Jewish studies) to as many different types of people as possible utilising as many methodologies as he or she can muster.

As a facilitator a rabbi must help people to want to, and to be able to do their own Judaism. I cannot get someone to do my Judaism for me and nor can anyone else.
I feel that there is a real danger in progressive Judaism of regarding Jewish life and especially synagogue as some kind of advent-grade theatre.

As spiritual role model (or if you prefer as a moral role model) the rabbi should strive to live a life as full of Judaism (guided by insights form our own Reform traditions) as possible and to increase the seriousness with which Judaism is taken by everyone and to do so by example.

He or she should also foster an environment where people’s relationship with God can develop.

There is also the pastoral role of the rabbinate, which although more often than not is conducted out of sight is nevertheless of mayor importance for members of the community.

At the risk of upsetting people even more than I have already. I think that what we really need is little short of rebbes but a new bread of Progressive Rebbes for the twenty first century.

Returning to the Story of Korach and his claim that the People of Israel did not need leaders. In an ideal world I think this would be true and that the role of the rabbi as I have outlined above is to work towards the time and place when they would not be needed. But to do so in the recognition that such a situation is never going to occur.

What is the role of the rabbi?

It is to increase people’s commitment to and connection with their Judaism, G-D, and Beni-Yisrael.