Zone1 What is a Rabbi?

[Cassandro]

I tried looking up the definition of a Rabbi, and all I got was a Jewish spiritual leader. Are there some specific credentials or educational degrees that are required? If not, can anyone become a rabbi? Do some rabbis have more influence than others? Who makes this determination?

I ask these questions in the context of Rabbinical Law. It is one thing for Moses to come down from the mountain with stone tablets, but that is quite different from a series of spiritual leaders announcing hundreds of additional religious laws. When did the last ones come into effect? Can new ones still be created? Thank you for your thoughts.

 

[rosends]

Today, "Rabbi" is a title which generally means that the person has studied particular areas of Jewish law and has been tested and found competent by another rabbi. It is a "degree" in the sense that it is the end goal of particlar study and in some schools, there is a program of classes which must be taken. In the past, people also used the term for anyone who was a teacher or who helped to lead a community, regardless of the specifics of his education.

It is also the subject of much argumentation. I wrote an essay about it a while ago (dealing with the question of a woman's place in the rabbinate)

The Rabbinette

In case you don't know it, I am a rabbi. Strange but true. A number of years ago, I, realizing my own weakness in my understanding of Juda...

rosends.blogspot.com

 

[1srelluc]

Isn't he the guy who always answers a question with a question?

 

[SaxonJackson]

I tried looking up the definition of a Rabbi, and all I got was a Jewish spiritual leader. Are there some specific credentials or educational degrees that are required? If not, can anyone become a rabbi? Do some rabbis have more influence than others? Who makes this determination?

I ask these questions in the context of Rabbinical Law. It is one thing for Moses to come down from the mountain with stone tablets, but that is quite different from a series of spiritual leaders announcing hundreds of additional religious laws. When did the last ones come into effect? Can new ones still be created? Thank you for your thoughts.

I believe the word simply translates from the Hebrew or Greek word for "teacher." The modern version means something entirely different.

 

[rosends]

I believe the word simply translates from the Hebrew or Greek word for "teacher." The modern version means something entirely different.

Teacher is moreh. Rav is more that that.

 

[SaxonJackson]

Teacher is moreh. Rav is more that that.

Strong's Concordance: G4461 - rhabbi - Strong's Greek Lexicon (KJV)

KJV Translation Count — Total: 17x
The KJV translates Strong's G4461 in the following manner: Master (Christ) (9x), Rabbi (Christ) (5x), rabbi (3x).
Outline of Biblical Usage [?]

1. my great one, my honourable sir
2. Rabbi, a title used by the Jews to address their teachers (and also honour them when not addressing them)

 

[rosends]

Strong's Concordance: G4461 - rhabbi - Strong's Greek Lexicon (KJV)

KJV Translation Count — Total: 17x
The KJV translates Strong's G4461 in the following manner: Master (Christ) (9x), Rabbi (Christ) (5x), rabbi (3x).
Outline of Biblical Usage [?]

1. my great one, my honourable sir
2. Rabbi, a title used by the Jews to address their teachers (and also honour them when not addressing them)

So? A bunch of people trying to translate a word which doesn't exist in the Hebrew by looking at a Greek text.

 

[DennisPTate]

I tried looking up the definition of a Rabbi, and all I got was a Jewish spiritual leader. Are there some specific credentials or educational degrees that are required? If not, can anyone become a rabbi? Do some rabbis have more influence than others? Who makes this determination?

I ask these questions in the context of Rabbinical Law. It is one thing for Moses to come down from the mountain with stone tablets, but that is quite different from a series of spiritual leaders announcing hundreds of additional religious laws. When did the last ones come into effect? Can new ones still be created? Thank you for your thoughts.

On that note I would like to propose a reality film series where perhaps some of my Breslovian Chassidic Jewish friends become students of Rabbi Alon Anava?

Mr. Yehoshua Sofer, [the Jewish Bruce Lee], is one of my online friends from my Israeli Breslovian Chassidic friend who I met about fifteen or so years ago.

I could write up questions for some of my Breslovian Chassidic Jewish friends to put to Rabbi Alon Anava that he might just find to be interesting?

Zone1 Thread 'Was Rabbi Nachman of Breslov a "King Solomon" sort of teacher?'

Dec 23, 2025

Although I am Messianic Jewish, [ or perhaps MessyAntik Jewish], I regard that Rabbi Nachman of Breslov was a recipient of a promise from Rabbi Yeshua -Jesus to his listeners, [as well as to their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren]?


In a way, similar to Rabbi Yeshua - Jesus, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov was an intellect who could be compared with King Solomon, and frankly as even greater than King Solomon/

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father."...

• DennisPTate
• Replies: 6
• Forum: Religion and Ethics

 

[BreezeWood]

Isn't he the guy who always answers a question with a question?

- and has long furry ears ...

often travels in pairs.

 

[Quantrill]

I tried looking up the definition of a Rabbi, and all I got was a Jewish spiritual leader. Are there some specific credentials or educational degrees that are required? If not, can anyone become a rabbi? Do some rabbis have more influence than others? Who makes this determination?

I ask these questions in the context of Rabbinical Law. It is one thing for Moses to come down from the mountain with stone tablets, but that is quite different from a series of spiritual leaders announcing hundreds of additional religious laws. When did the last ones come into effect? Can new ones still be created? Thank you for your thoughts.

A definition of 'Rabbi' from a dictionary won't reveal what a Rabbi is or was, or Rabbinism. Most important, in the study of the Bible, one needs to know what Rabbinism was at the time of Jesus.

Alfred Edersheim in his book, 'The Life And Times Of Jesus The Messiah' delves into it a lot, concerning the Rabbi's and Rabbinism of Jesus day.

Here is a couple of quotes.

"Jesus spoke as truly a Jew to the Jews, but He spoke not as they--no, not as their highest and best Teachers would have spoken. And this contrariety of spirit with manifest similarity of form is, to my mind, one of the strongest evidences of the claims of Christ, since it raises the all-important question, whence the Teacher of Nazareth--or, shall we say, the humble Child of the Carpenter-home in a far-off little place of Galilee--had drawn His inspiration. And clearly to set this forth has been the first object of the detailed Rabbinic quotations in this book." (Vol. 1, preface to first edition, p. ix, 1883)

"But Palestine owed, if possible, a still greater debt to Babylonia. the new circumstances in which the Jews were placed on their return seemed to render necessary an adaptation of the Mosaic Law, if not new legislation. Besides, piety and zeal now attached themselves to the outwasrd observance and study of the letter of the Law. This is the origin of the Mishnah or Second Law, which was intended to explain and supplement the first. This constituted the only Jewish dogmatics, in the real sense, in the study of which the sage, Rabbi, scholar, scribe, and Darshan, were engaged. The result of it was the Midrash, or investigation, a term which afterwards was popularly applied to commentaries on the Scriptures and preaching." (Vol. 1, p.11 1886)

Quantrill

 

[rosends]

A definition of 'Rabbi' from a dictionary won't reveal what a Rabbi is or was, or Rabbinism. Most important, in the study of the Bible, one needs to know what Rabbinism was at the time of Jesus.

Alfred Edersheim in his book, 'The Life And Times Of Jesus The Messiah' delves into it a lot, concerning the Rabbi's and Rabbinism of Jesus day.

Here is a couple of quotes.

"Jesus spoke as truly a Jew to the Jews, but He spoke not as they--no, not as their highest and best Teachers would have spoken. And this contrariety of spirit with manifest similarity of form is, to my mind, one of the strongest evidences of the claims of Christ, since it raises the all-important question, whence the Teacher of Nazareth--or, shall we say, the humble Child of the Carpenter-home in a far-off little place of Galilee--had drawn His inspiration. And clearly to set this forth has been the first object of the detailed Rabbinic quotations in this book." (Vol. 1, preface to first edition, p. ix, 1883)

"But Palestine owed, if possible, a still greater debt to Babylonia. the new circumstances in which the Jews were placed on their return seemed to render necessary an adaptation of the Mosaic Law, if not new legislation. Besides, piety and zeal now attached themselves to the outwasrd observance and study of the letter of the Law. This is the origin of the Mishnah or Second Law, which was intended to explain and supplement the first. This constituted the only Jewish dogmatics, in the real sense, in the study of which the sage, Rabbi, scholar, scribe, and Darshan, were engaged. The result of it was the Midrash, or investigation, a term which afterwards was popularly applied to commentaries on the Scriptures and preaching." (Vol. 1, p.11 1886)

Quantrill

That's wrong. The midrash is not what is described here.

 

[Cassandro]

A definition of 'Rabbi' from a dictionary won't reveal what a Rabbi is or was, or Rabbinism. Most important, in the study of the Bible, one needs to know what Rabbinism was at the time of Jesus.

If you don't know, why not say so?

 

[fncceo]

If not, can anyone become a rabbi?

Not you.

 

[fncceo]

So? A bunch of people trying to translate a word which doesn't exist in the Hebrew by looking at a Greek text.

These Jew obsessed idiots are like adolescent boys in love with older girls.

They know they can never attract them so they are satisfied to merely annoy them for the attention.

You have to laugh.

 

[BreezeWood]

Are there some specific credentials or educational degrees that are required? If not, can anyone become a rabbi? Do some rabbis have more influence than others? Who makes this determination?

Not you.

they, the jew must be convinced your mother isn't their type of desert dweller ... though they do not know themselves who the first one was to worship her above all the others. the liars moses and abraham as examples.

 

[Quantrill]

If you don't know, why not say so?

If you don't want to know why do you ask?

Why waste others time?

Quantrill

 

[Cassandro]

If you don't want to know why do you ask?

Why waste others time?

Quantrill

Try using your own words instead of referencing what others say.

 

[Zebra]

I think a Rabbi is a judge

 

[Quantrill]

Try using your own words instead of referencing what others say.

The subject you present is too in depth to just present in a simple post. I give you a reference to turn to if you really want to know about it. If you were really interested, you can purchase the book I referenced.

You apparently don't want to know. Your question is as shallow as your replies.

Waste someone else's time.

Quantrill

 

[DennisPTate]

A definition of 'Rabbi' from a dictionary won't reveal what a Rabbi is or was, or Rabbinism. Most important, in the study of the Bible, one needs to know what Rabbinism was at the time of Jesus.

Alfred Edersheim in his book, 'The Life And Times Of Jesus The Messiah' delves into it a lot, concerning the Rabbi's and Rabbinism of Jesus day.

Here is a couple of quotes.

"Jesus spoke as truly a Jew to the Jews, but He spoke not as they--no, not as their highest and best Teachers would have spoken. And this contrariety of spirit with manifest similarity of form is, to my mind, one of the strongest evidences of the claims of Christ, since it raises the all-important question, whence the Teacher of Nazareth--or, shall we say, the humble Child of the Carpenter-home in a far-off little place of Galilee--had drawn His inspiration. And clearly to set this forth has been the first object of the detailed Rabbinic quotations in this book." (Vol. 1, preface to first edition, p. ix, 1883)

"But Palestine owed, if possible, a still greater debt to Babylonia. the new circumstances in which the Jews were placed on their return seemed to render necessary an adaptation of the Mosaic Law, if not new legislation. Besides, piety and zeal now attached themselves to the outwasrd observance and study of the letter of the Law. This is the origin of the Mishnah or Second Law, which was intended to explain and supplement the first. This constituted the only Jewish dogmatics, in the real sense, in the study of which the sage, Rabbi, scholar, scribe, and Darshan, were engaged. The result of it was the Midrash, or investigation, a term which afterwards was popularly applied to commentaries on the Scriptures and preaching." (Vol. 1, p.11 1886)

Quantrill

To at least some degree.....
any brilliant Rabbi such as Rabbi Alon Anava.....
will be regarded as the most dangerous of all Jewish theologians by a percentage of other "Rabbi's" who disagree with Rabbi Alon Anava on seemingly minute details........
......
...... Many Rabbi's will consider it to be their RELIGIOUS AND ETHICAL DUTY to do a Wrap Up Smear on Rabbi Alon Anava.... due to their inability to debate with him on pretty much any serious topic face to face?

Zone1 Post in thread 'What is a Rabbi?'

Dec 25, 2025

A definition of 'Rabbi' from a dictionary won't reveal what a Rabbi is or was, or Rabbinism. Most important, in the study of the Bible, one needs to know what Rabbinism was at the time of Jesus.

Alfred Edersheim in his book, 'The Life And Times Of Jesus The Messiah' delves into it a lot, concerning the Rabbi's and Rabbinism of Jesus day.

Here is a couple of quotes.

"Jesus spoke as truly a Jew to the Jews, but He spoke not as they--no, not as their highest and best Teachers would have spoken. And this contrariety of spirit with manifest similarity of form is, to my mind, one of...

• DennisPTate