Q&A: Make for Yourself a Rabbi
Make for Yourself a Rabbi
Question
What should a person have for me to be able to rely on his opinion or his halakhic rulings on matters of Jewish law, and essentially make him “my rabbi”? (Until, with God’s help, I myself become qualified 😉)
As the saying goes, the baker doesn’t testify about his own dough. But in any case, do you think one can rely on you in questions of Jewish law, and especially in unprecedented rulings?
Thank you very much!
Answer
That’s a silly question. If one can’t rely on me, then one also can’t rely on the answer you receive here.
That’s your decision, not anyone else’s.
Discussion on Answer
For the reason below*
Sorry about the additional mistakes. The comment was written quickly while walking 😀
I understand. I don’t have criteria. It’s a matter of impression: whether the person is a Torah scholar, whether he is balanced and has sound judgment, and whether he will tell you the truth (that is, he is God-fearing). How do you check all that? Mainly by impression. Of course, you can also hear what other Torah scholars think of him as part of forming that impression.
If someone answers, “You can’t rely on me,” then apparently that’s something you actually can rely on fairly easily. So an answer like “You can rely on me” also contributes to the decision, even if it isn’t sufficient.
Thank you very much!
The quick response is appreciated.
Despite the casual nature of the answer, you can actually learn a lot from it, and it’s possible to derive an orderly practical approach from it.
Things that seem simple aren’t always clear to everyone, especially if you grew up in a very conservative climate of opinion. My immediate instinct, for example, was to rely on whoever my father relied on. Even though there’s no pursuit of truth here (there is some logic to it, yes, but it isn’t relevant here).
Again, thank you very much.
I’m aware of that. That’s why I opened with a general question, and of course that too can be dismissed because of the circularity of authority, but if so then no one will be able to say anything on the subject. The easy answer is that everyone should choose whatever seems right to him. But I was worried the result would be close to “everyone does whatever is right in his own eyes.” If you aren’t qualified to decide for yourself, why are you qualified to “accept” the decision through a straw figure you chose? And the instinct is of course always to choose the lenient approach, if in any case you don’t know the way to a ruling.
I thought maybe there are additional criteria for authority, such as broad consensus (specifically, that doesn’t sound like such a great idea to me).
For you, of course, the validity of authority will be circular. But for me it isn’t, for the reason below, which I’ll put in two ways:
A. I expect there to be a reason—something I can accept.
Especially when the method is general and not personal.
B. I can take upon myself the authority of an expert as a way of life. So I didn’t assume the conclusion I was trying to prove if your answer doesn’t obligate me until I decide that it does—not because I was persuaded, but because I’m obligated to obey.