<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 11:50 PM, Yosef Skolnick <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:yskolnick@gmail.com">yskolnick@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<br><div class="gmail_quote"><div class="im">On Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 9:32 PM, Richard Wolberg <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:cantorwolberg@cox.net" target="_blank">cantorwolberg@cox.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Halacha says that you cannot fire a rabbi.<br></blockquote></div><div>Can you please be more specific? </div><div class="im"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
There is a very important distinction which needs to be made.<br>
Firing a rabbi implies terminating a contract prior to its conclusion.<br></blockquote></div><div>Agreed. What if the rabbi is incompetent or is in some other way affecting the way the shul/community is run negatively. </div>
<div class="im">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
However, I would take issue with contending that halacha says<br>
you have to renew a rabbi's contract. If that were the case, then once<br>
a rabbi is hired by a shul, he automatically has a life time tenure.<br></blockquote></div><div>Who says that we can make a contract with a Rabbi? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of the Rabbi if he is constantly worried about how different congregants(sp?) are going to view his positions? Where is the original source of the modern professional rabbinate? ie- Why </div>
<div class="im">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
To reiterate -- not renewing a rabbi's contract is NOT firing him<br></blockquote></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>RYS suggests somehow that the position of "Rabbi" for a community or pulpit is both a legal contract of employment (presumably employment by the community or congregation for the performance of certain duties on their behalf) and some sort of religious/political hegemony at the same time!</div>
<div><br></div><div>How does this stand to reason? How can RYS agree that "firing a rabbi" means termination in breach of contract, when the very right to hire a rabbi on contract is questionable in his eyes?</div>
<div><br></div><div>A Rabbi is not a King, no matter how many comparisons can be found in Rabbinic literature. A Rabbi is not a political leader or a Divinely appointed ruler of the people, neither regarding matters of governance nor those of the spirit. "Aseh L'Cha Rav" (curiously similar to "Kach L'Cha Anashim") is a recommendation of the Rabbis themselves, and reflects "Milah D'Chasidusa" -- placing a Rav in charge of your spiritual affairs is a personal effort to go beyond the letter of the Law. The only authority placed above the freedom of the people to choose their own spiritual and legal guidance, regarding both temporal and Divine law, is the institution of Prophecy, the Sanhedrin, and the Lesser Courts (who also have the power to appoint Shotrim to enforce the law). None of these three institutions exist today, for a number of reasons. Therefore, their is no need for a 'source' for the Rabbinate. The system of appointing a rabbi for a community or congregation evolved naturally in the absence of central religious authority--the dissolution of the Sanhedrin, the termination of the practice of semicha, and finally the decline of the central religious academies of Bavel in the later time of the Geonim.</div>
<div><br></div><div>The term of "contract" so to speak, for political leaders, has always been debated for the very reason RYS mentions--the concern over the sway that the public will hold over the decisions of the politicians, thereby interfering with their work in upholding the Law and acting on behalf of the greater good. Supreme Court Judges, for example, like ancient monarchs, hold lifetime positions, to free them from having to cater to popular will. Yet in Torah, the only lifelong position is that of the King, which isn't looked upon with total approval by the Prophets, and we all know how the Monarchy turned out in Jewish history. Even members of the Sanhedrin could be dismissed by the collective will of their peers, and their exercise of power in the practical sense depended on the faith placed in them by the people. Finally, the Rambam cautions against providing individual Rabbis of the Sanhedrin with unlimited terms of office, since the quality of genuine religious leadership diminishes with age, where opinion eventually overshadows knowledge and rigidity replaces tolerance and balanced temperament.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Thus, the issue with terminating a Rabbi is either one of contract law or one of extra-legal sentiment.</div></div>