On Rabbis

It's amazing to me that different people find different things interesting. When I post something that strikes me I often get no feedback. Then I slip a little aside and spark some interest. There has been interest expressed about being a rabbi, and about the different strains of Judaism. To me this borders on yawn city. But the people want to know.

When I was a kid I didn't think about rabbis. They were just rabbis. In my community there was "the rabbi," the one "go to man" as his son put it at his father's funeral. That was Rabbi Louis Bernstein. Then there were my teacher rabbis. In my community there were a few people with the title of rabbi. One of them was a school principal and often gave classes and filled in in shul. The others all struck me as decent regular people who I never encountered in their formal role.

When I became more interested in religion and decided to do smicha (ordination) I realized that rabbis are people. In my class were world class scholars, and sarcastic wise guys, people who were meticulous about halacha, and people who were sloppy in observance, people who were refined, people who were crass. Many people around me have changed their perception of a rabbi since childhood. People like to have their rabbi, usually whomever happens to be the rabbi of their shul, and what he says goes, and done. But when all the rabbis getting jobs in shuls start being your age or younger, and you know them from the inside things change.

Most of my best friends are rabbis: principals, pulpit rabbis, teachers, chaplains. They're all human. Recently I bumped into an old friend and his wife. They couldn't stop talking about renegaderebetzin's blog: how it's been written up in the news, and so many people read it, and it's just the greatest. He's a shul rabbi and she could be the renegade rebetzin, though she denies it. Part of the appeal of that blog is the human face it puts on the life of a rabbi. Some time ago I quoted Rabbi Bernstein who told me many years ago in the name of one of his favorite congregants (Al Silber): "your kids don't call you rabbi." His point was that you're still a person. As my dad, he should live and be well, says: you put on your pants one leg at a time just like everyone else.

This is some of what comes to mind for me when I hear the word rabbi. There's so little to say and so much time. Reverse that. (That was a bonus movie reference).