If, on the other hand, we must refer to anyone who has taught us a valuable lesson by the title Rabbi, there’s a whole bunch of no-goodniks out there I should be addressing as Rabbi No Goodnik.
There are a few websites out there whose sole purpose is to catch rabbis in all kinds of failures. I suppose that’s part of the Rabbi game, too.
Hirhurim offers a good discussion of mostly the social aspects of the Rabbinic title. As some of his readers suggest, he hasn’t touched, really, the on issue of ordination, and what’s the real connection between today’s s’micha institution and the classical one. Maybe some other time.
Who Can Be Called Rabbi? To many people, “rabbi” is a professional title. Failing to use that title confuses people and, to a small degree, hurts the subject’s livelihood. Is it proper, in such a circumstance, to withhold the title “rabbi” from someone who fails the religious standards mentioned above but serves in that professional capacity? Hirhurim
Please don’t gang up on poor Tibbi for linking to this oh-so-un-frum story, about Amrica’s first female rabbi. I’m as frum as the next lady out there, but I still found myself empathizing with what turned out to be a fairly sad account of a life of struggling to be recognized.
Being a female rabbi in the Reform movement 40 years ago wasn’t any easier than being female anywhere else. And Sally Priesand had to make a few very painful sacrifices.
America’s First Female Rabbi Reflects on Four Decades Since Ordination Regarding what the private lives of female rabbis are like, Priesand says that is up to each individual woman. When she was in rabbinical school, she intended to get married and have children, and planned to have a nursery next to her synagogue office. Reality turned out to be different. “When I got out in the real world, I realized that I just couldn’t do that; I would be torn between my family and my congregation,” she says. “But I can look back and know that all the children of the synagogue are in a sense my children and I’ve had an influence.” eJewish Philanthropy
And, obviously, no discussion of rabbinic ordination and the many different Jews who seek to have it would be complete without Shmarya the Failed Messiah. He is so reliable…
Rabbi Ordination Fraud Uncovered Five men are suspected for fraud and impersonation after attempting to take a rabbinic qualification exam in the name yeshiva students. The five men admitted they were paid thousands of shekels by yeshiva students to take the exam in their place, because the yeshiva students were not properly prepared to pass it themselves. Police suspect a larger network of fraudulent semicha test takers has been operating and that many more rabbis fraudulently obtained ordination this way. Shmarya Rosenberg, FailedMessiah.com
| OUR CHILDREN ONLY HAVE US TO BLAME |
We can’t raise our children trying to avoid mistakes. And we can take it for granted that over the course of 20 or so years we’ll make so many horrendous mistakes, our kids would end up singing in dark jazz clubs how we ruined their lives. It can’t be helped. Now go have babies and raise them the best you can.
Why parenting scares me For me, the scariest part of parenting is not knowing where my actions or words will lead.
Parents talk to children, reward or punish them, assign them tasks and mark their progress, all with the best intentions and perhaps even with some knowledge, but who know where it’s going to go? Who can predict the impact? The Rebbetzin’s Husband
You Let Your Kids Do WHAT? 20/20 featured a shocking episode this past Friday called “You Let Your Kids Do WHAT?” This show includes a Las Vegas Billionaire who bribes her teenage daughter to bring home straight A’s with trips to Morocco and $20,000 shopping sprees. A couple that is raising their sons on a Florida nudist colony. And a couple who bought their 7-year-old son a $50,000 monster truck that he rides as the youngest participant on the hyper-dangerous monster truck circuit.
The weird thing is that when these parents discuss their problematic parenting decisions they almost sound reasonable.
Jewish Mom