Q&A: On Choosing a Rabbi Without Ordination
On Choosing a Rabbi Without Ordination
Question
Shalom uvracha Rabbi Michael,
Again apologies for English, feel free to reply in Hebrew.
I’m X from Y in Z, my son is A from B.
As you may know, we’re searching for a rabbi, and we’re very close to the end of the process.
One of the candidates seems very suitable, Rabbi C, a ram in D. He speaks well, in Hebrew and English, seems to be a Torah scholar, good with youth, and comes well recommended.
But he doesn’t have ordination. Some say official ordination doesn’t matter; after all, he is a ram, has students, etc., but to me it seems a little strange. He is willing to commit to obtaining ordination, but that will take time.
What is your view, which I value highly? I promise to keep it confidential, unless you allow otherwise.
All the best
Answer
I also don’t have ordination, so maybe my opinion is biased. To the best of my judgment, it has no importance whatsoever. As is known, nowadays ordination has no halakhic significance at all, and certainly not the ordination of the Chief Rabbinate. It is an “industrial” process whose purpose is formal-legal (regulation of the rabbinate and rabbis). Most people who do it do so in order to help themselves study, by giving themselves a framework. And someone who doesn’t need that doesn’t do it. In my opinion, it even lowers the quality of study and halakhic thinking.
As someone without ordination, I taught students and submitted them for the Rabbinate exams, and their ordination depended on my recommendation. I don’t know the rabbi in question, but I assume that with him too this is the case.
None of the heads of the Haredi yeshivot (and some of the Zionist ones) received ordination, and that means they didn’t need it in order to continue learning.
What matters is only your own impression and recommendations from rabbis and from people who know him.
You may share everything I wrote with whomever you wish.
Good luck to all of you.
Michi
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Avi:
Hello Rabbi Michi,
It is true that there are heads of yeshivot without ordination from the Rabbinate, but they were ordained by their own rabbi, as was the case throughout the generations. I’m not sure the questioner was speaking specifically about ordination from the Rabbinate.
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The Rabbi:
To the best of my knowledge, that is not so. As a rule, heads of yeshiva are not ordained by anyone, and in any case most of them do not engage in issuing halakhic rulings. In Hungary there was the ordination of “Morenu” and the like, but that is a specific Hungarian custom.
In any case, there is no such requirement and no need for it. If there is such ordination, it is in the category of an additional recommendation, and recommendations are always good.
Was this the case throughout the generations? I do not know, but I tend to think not. There is no evidence for it in the responsa literature and writings, aside from a few isolated places.