ACRE Blog

It used to be that rabbis learned torah. That's what they did. Then someone would interrupt him (remember, they used to be only men) and ask a question about whether their chicken was kosher, or what brochah to make on the new sewing machine. He would answer, and go back to learning. That's the Fiddler on the Roof picture, but it doesn't quite work out that way today. In the American context rabbis are called on to be pastoral clergy, organizational CEOs, charismatic sermonizers, and many more roles which keep them more than busy: often on the way to burnout. This situation has brought a growing awareness that since the rabbinate has become an institutionalized profession as well as a spiritual vocation, there needs to be built in institutionalized spaces, times and resources for rabbis to renew themselves, revive the spiritual and intellectual excitement that got them into the rabbinate in the first place. But this newly emerging awareness goes up against two prevailing and mutually contradictory misconceptions: First, that the old picture somehow still applies. "Of course the rabbi still learns torah. That's what rabbis do. When? It's not clear, but I'm sure she is finding the time." The other, contradictory assumption is that as a degreed, certified professional, the rabbi is a "finished product" and doesn't need to be supported in learning more. That's what seminary is for! In a sense, the rabbinate finds itself betwixt and between: having moved beyond the traditional, more informal world of the pre-modern rabbinate but not yet quite mature as a profession like law or medicine, it suffers from on both accounts. As is always the case with evolution, change comes not by trying to create something new, but by adjusting the old needs to new circumstances. We still need rabbis who learn and grow, and care for their spiritual vocation, but we now need to institutionalize these goals along the lines of modern professions. These are not necessarily easy waters to navigate. There will need to be research, a variety of different angles and perspectives, trials and errors. How does one professionalize without losing the sense of vocation? Where are the places that the seminaries are doing a good job of preparing rabbis for the field and where are there gaps to be filled? What can we learn from other clergy in the U.S., especially Christian clergy who have a head start on many of these question? The emerging field of Continuing Rabbinic Education is essentially attempting to create a new vision of the rabbinate. It is one in which the rabbi is not a "finished product" but a constantly growing "life long learner." It is one in which the traditional ideal of the rabbi as one who exemplifies a life of torah, in continually learning and practicing torah, is merged with the demands of the rabbi as modern professional.

posted by Steve Kraus, on behalf of Natan Margalit - Executive Director of Oraita