What is a Rabbi?

The word rabbi (or ravi) means respected teacher, when roughly translated to English, but it is a rich, Hebrew concept that means much more (that we will continue to explore). In the modern parlance, a Rabbi is seen as the leader of a Jewish synagogue, but in the first century, rabbi was a considerably different concept. Prior to the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., this title meant something much different. After the Maccabean Revolt in the second century B.C., a large number (more than 100,000) diaspora Jews from Babylon returned, en masse, over a short period of time back to the land of Israel, because it was now free of its enslavement by the Greeks. Because the land in Judea was largely settled, they chose the less favorable land around the Sea of Galilee and the Jezreel valley in which to settle. These people were often called the hasidim (lit. the pious ones), because of their exceeding fervor for worshipping God and for keeping all of the Hebrew Scriptures (which we call the Old Testament). In contrast, the Jews living in Judea were much more secular and ceremonial keeping only the Torah (Genesis through Deuteronomy) and maintaining the priesthood and Temple rites. The hasidim brought with them the tradition of synagogue a meeting place where all the gatherings of community life happened: studying scripture, weddings, debates, festivals, and worship. Among the hasidim, there were a number of teachers, who were responsible for teaching the scriptures to the people, primarily the children most of whom would have the entire Torah memorized by the age of 12 (which is still the case in many hasidic communities in Israel). Every person in Israel is obligated to be engaged in Torah learning, whether one is poor or wealthy, whether one is whole in body or afflicted with suffering, whether one is young or one is old and feeble, even a poor person who is supported by charity and goes from door to door seeking benevolence, even the man supporting his wife and children everyone is required to find a set time during the day and night to study Torah, as it was said you shall go over it, again and again, day and night (Joshua 1:8) Moses Maimonides, Mishnah Torah, Hilkot Talmud Torah 1:8 These rabbis were not religious leaders or the keepers of the synagogue. Rather, they were seen as exactly what their name implied a respected teacher. Among these scholars were a VERY small subset, who were seen as having smikah (authority). This smikah allowed them to make new interpretations on how to live out Torah. (It is important to note that even they could not change Torah, but that their interpretation was on how to view it correctly so as to know how to live and act correctly, so as to please God). Among these rabbis with smikah, prior to the first century A.D., we know several names, with Honi and Hillel (the grandfather of Pauls rabbi, Gamaliel who was quite famous, in his own right) as the most prominent in this timeframe. (These smikah rabbis are often denoted by scholars as sages, whereas scripture refers to the rabbis without smikah as Torah Teachers (Teachers of the Law).) These smikah rabbis were also unique, because they lived a more itinerate lifestyle and took on followers called talmidim (disciples) who lived with them most of time, though they would be sent out on their own later in their learning. The rabbis had a yoke, their method if interpreting scripture, in which they would order the commandments of Torah from greatest to least. The talmidim of a rabbi would be expected to live by that yoke and to memorize the key teachings of that rabbi. Living with their rabbi, these talmidim would also learn to live in the same manner with their greatest desire to be to learn to follow God just like their rabbi. In all of this, the talmidim were also in complete submission to the authority of their rabbi.