The Encyclopedia of World Religions

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began to perform many new duties that were pas toral and social in nature. In the United States today rabbis resemble Protestant ministers and Catholic priests. They attend seminaries, are ordained, and are then hired by congregations. As leaders of congrega tions one of their chief responsibilities is to lead SYNAGOGUE services on the Sabbath and holidays. That includes preaching sermons on a regular basis, something traditional rabbis did only twice a year. Other responsibilities of American rabbis include performing weddings and funerals, teach ing, especially teaching the youth, visiting the sick and performing other pastoral duties, organizing and leading the social life of the congregation, and—not an insignificant role—representing the Jewish community to its non-Jewish neighbors. The rabbinate in Israel is considerably differ ent. In Israel, unlike the United States, the rabbin ate is a state-controlled institution. H ALAKHAH (Jew ish law) is the official law in most civil matters, and one of the primary functions of rabbis is to act as judges in civil, but not criminal, proceedings. Another is to ensure that halakhah is observed in, for example, the preparation of food. Only rarely if ever is being the rabbi of a synagogue in Israel a full-time job. One of the most important changes to the rabbinate in the 20th century was the admission of women. Although halakhah permitted women to teach and to preach, it did not traditionally allow them to serve as witnesses or judges. There fore, women had been excluded from ordination. Reform Judaism rejected this restriction and, in 1972, became the first group to ordain women to

rabbi, rabbinate From a Hebrew word mean ing “my master, my teacher”; the leader of the Jewish community, and the office of leadership, respectively. The office of rabbi—the rabbinate— has assumed different functions and structures at different times and places. Today’s rabbis perform functions that ancient and medieval rabbis did not perform. Furthermore, the rabbinate in the United States differs considerably from the rabbinate in Israel. Nevertheless, the rabbi has been the chief religious leader of J UDAISM since the destruction of the Temple in 70 C . E . The rabbinate—and with it modern rabbinical Judaism—grew out of the branch of ancient Juda ism known as the Pharisaical movement. P HARISEES were people whose religion centered on the study of T ORAH . According to tradition, the term “rabbi” was first used in Palestine after the destruction of the Temple. Originally, rabbis were experts in both writ ten and oral Torah—the first five books of the B IBLE and the discussions that were eventually recorded in the T ALMUD . Because Torah contains instructions on how to live, the rabbis became judges. When other forms of leadership died out, the rabbis gradually became the leaders of Jew ish communities. In the Middle Ages the rabbin ate became a full-time occupation. It also became common for each locality to recognize one, and only one, rabbi. During the 19th century most European countries gave Jews full civil rights. Among other things, that meant that they were subject to the laws of the state and could use state courts to pursue their legal claims. As a result, rabbis stopped acting as judges. Instead, they

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