Rabbi
Rabbi (Hebrew for “my teacher” or “my master”, in Judaism, is a religious teacher and leader of a Jewish community or congregation. Especially in Israel, they may also have political powers, and may have more so in the future, with demographic changes having been argued to cause Israel in the future to become a nuclear-armed theocracy.
Mainstream Judaism is often referred to as Rabbinic Judaism, illustrating the importance of rabbis. Secular descriptions characterize Rabbinic Judaism as a development from older forms of Judaism. Rabbinic Judaism contrasts with the Sadducees, Karaite Judaism and Samaritanism, which do not recognize the Oral Torah as a divine authority nor the rabbinic procedures used to interpret Jewish scripture.
There is a special (claimed genetically based) group within Judaism, the kohanim, traditionally believed to be of direct patrilineal descent from the biblical Aaron (also Aharon), brother of Moses, with this group having special religious privileges, including religious leadership privileges, varying in different forms of Judaism.
The education of a rabbi consists primarily of Talmudic and other religious studies, possibly problematic for reasons such as the various criticisms against the Talmud and Judaism, such as accusations of Jewish supremacism.
Prominent rabbis have made various controversial statements, sometimes stated to be Jewish supremacist. See the "External links" section.
See also
- Haredi Judaism
- Jewish supremacism
- Kabbalah
- Kahanism
- Maimonides
- Menachem Mendel Schneerson
- Ovadia Yosef
- Orthodox Judaism
- Talmud
- Torah
External links
- Gentile-Hating and Popular Chief Rabbi of Judea and Samaria Urges Killing of Gaza Civilians
- Racist Israeli Rabbis
- Rabbi Yosef’s Statement: “Goyim were born only to serve us”
- Rabbi Schneerson’s Contempt for Non-Jews Advertised on Buses in Israel
- Menachem Mendel Schneerson: The Expedient Messiah, Part 1
- Is that cellphone kosher?
- The White House Honors Hateful Jewish Supremacists