Rabbi

:See Semicha for article about "ordination" of rabbis.

History

Moses and Joshua: The first "rabbis"

By tradition Moses was the first rabbi of the Children of Israel. To this day he is known to most Jews as Moshe Rabbeinu ("Moses our Teacher"). Moses is also considered the greatest prophet in the Hebrew Bible. Moses passed his leadership on to Joshua as commanded by God in the Book of Numbers, where the subject of semicha ("laying " or "ordination") is first mentioned in the Torah in Numbers 27:15-23 http://bible.ort.org/books/pentd2.asp?ACTION=displaypage&BOOK=4&CHAPTER=27 and Deuteronomy 34:9 http://bible.ort.org/books/pentd2.asp?ACTION=displaypage&BOOK=5&CHAPTER=34. By Jewish tradition, the authority granted by semicha has been passed from rabbi to rabbi from Moses to the present day.

Related Topics:
Moses - Children of Israel - Prophet - Hebrew Bible - Joshua - Book of Numbers - Deuteronomy

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Era of the Tanakh

The governments of the kingdoms of Israel and the Judah were based on a system of Jewish kings, prophets, the legal authority of the court of the Sanhedrin and the ritual authority of priesthood. Members of the Sanhedrin all had to have awarded their semicha ("ordination" derived in an uninterrupted line of transmission from Moses) yet they were more frequently referred to as judges (dayanim) akin to the Shoftim or "Judges" as in the Book of Judges, rather than rabbis.

Related Topics:
Israel - Judah - Sanhedrin - Priesthood - Book of Judges

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All of the above personalities would have been expected and assumed to be steeped in the wisdom of the Torah and the commandments which would have made them "rabbis" to our way of thinking. This is illustrated by an important two thousand year old teaching in Ethics of the Fathers (Pirkei Avot) of the Mishnah which cites King David by saying:

Related Topics:
Torah - Commandments - Ethics of the Fathers - Mishnah - King David

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:"He who learns from his fellowman a single chapter, a single halakha, a single verse, a single Torah statement, or even a single letter, must treat him with honor. For so we find with David King of Israel, who learned nothing from Ahitophel except two things, yet called him his teacher (in Hebrew rabbo -- meaning his "rabbi"), his guide, his intimate, as it is said: 'You are a man of my measure, my guide, my intimate' (Psalms 55:14). One can derive from this the following: If David King of Israel who learned nothing from Ahitophel except for two things, called him his teacher (i.e. rabbo -- his "rabbi"), his guide, his intimate, one who learns from his fellowman a single chapter, a single halakha, a single verse, a single statement, or even a single letter, how much more must he treat him with honor. And honor is due only for Torah, as it is said: 'The wise shall inherit honor' (Proverbs 3:35), 'and the perfect shall inherit good' (Proverbs 28:10). And only Torah is truly good, as it is said: 'I have given you a good teaching, do not forsake My Torah' (Psalms 128:2)." (Ethics of the Fathers 6:3)

Related Topics:
Halakha - Torah - Ahitophel - Psalms - Proverbs

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With the destruction of the two Temples in Jerusalem, the end of the Jewish monarchy, and the decline of the dual instititutions of prophets and the priesthood, the focus of scholarly and spiritual leadership within the Jewish people shifted to the sages of the Anshe Knesset HaGedolah ("Men of the Great Assembly"). This assembly was composed by the earliest "rabbis" as we know them for the last two thousand years, in large part because they began the formulation and explication of what became known as Judaism's Torah SheBe'al Peh ("The Oral Law"). This was eventually encoded and codified within the Mishnah and Talmud and subsequent rabbinical scholarship, producing what is known as "Rabbinical Judaism".

Related Topics:
Temples in Jerusalem - Men of the Great Assembly - The Oral Law - Mishnah - Talmud - Rabbinical Judaism

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