Word Prompt – RAV – Moshe Kurtz

It's trendy for people with the title "Rabbi" in front of their name to sign on to open letters and public statements regarding a range of current events issues. But why should the opinion of an individual with the honorific "Rabbi" matter more than your average Ploni Almoni?

Ostensibly, it is because such an individual possesses profound Torah knowledge and their opinion is informed by the deep mastery of G-d's wisdom. The Shach (Yoreh Deah 244:2), based on Tosafos (Kiddushin) 32b), defines a Torah scholar as someone who is muflag b’chochma yoseir m’sha’ar ha’am, extraordinarily learned beyond the rest of the nation.

However, R. Dovid Ariab (L’Reiacha Kamocha, Vol. 6, Ch. 2, par. 4, fn. 10) cites a number of Achronim who imply that a Torah scholar need not be a great luminary of the entire Jewish people, but it would be sufficient for him to know more than his average constituents. R. Ariab writes that “as long as the Torah is his trade, he knows how to learn analytically, has fear of Heaven and does not degrade Torah commandments,” he qualifies as a Torah scholar and is to be accorded the associated honors. (See “The Pitfalls of Excessive Rabbinic Honorifics” in the Lehrhaus 6.21.21 for a fuller analysis.)

In either event, when a rabbi's output of political letters exceeds their published Torah scholarship, it creates cause for concern.

But, not to worry, I have a solution.

For every time we sign "Rabbi" onto a political letter, we are required to back up that credential with at least one scholarly Torah publication.

But here is the catch…some of us have a little catching up to do.