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There are Rabbis everywhere, how to identify who is a real Rabbi if the Rabbi is not included in a recognized organization, such as Israeli Supreme Court or RCA etc.? Does a Rabbi need Yeshiva study with a certificate? Or anything else?

user15676
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    'Rabbi' is not a technical term. What matters is expertise and integrity. If someone has the integrity to admit what he is competent to deal with and what he isnt, then you are good. – mevaqesh Sep 29 '17 at 03:44
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semikhah , https://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/25868/does-an-orthodox-rabbi-have-to-have-semicha/25879#25879 , https://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/6979/the-ability-to-pasken/20314#20314 – rosends Sep 29 '17 at 14:16
  • Welcome to Mi Yodeya. This is a good question. I'm not sure if this is "too broad", though. The 3 main factions in the U.S. have very different qualifications. Reform, for example, ordain female rabbis, so for them, they are "real" (I'm somewhat uncomfortable with this word, here, but, I get your usage of it for this question.) Orthodox would never accept a female rabbi (I'm not referring to the "rabbanit" title that seems to have started by Rabbi Avi Weiss recently. It's still quite controversial in the Orthodox community.) In short, there's no simple answer to this question. – DanF Sep 29 '17 at 15:45
  • "what makes a rabbi?" you ask... primarily, if the shul board really wants to keep him. Believe me, I've seen both sides of things - a lousy one that they keep and a good one that they fire. In most religious communities EVERYONE thinks he's the rabbi, anyway :-) – DanF Sep 29 '17 at 15:52
  • @mevaqesh Isn't a Rabbi one who has some sort of Smicha/certificate from a yeshiva? – larry909 Sep 29 '17 at 20:02
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    @larry909 semikha technically does not exist today. Thus, semikha today is significant only inasmuch as it indicates competence on the part of the recipient. Therefore, if a very competent Torah scholar happens to lack ordination (and indeed there have been great rabbis who lacked semikha) that isn't a problem, while someone incompetent with an easy to get semikha, wouldn't be someone you'd want to rely on. There is no universal standard for senikha, so it doesn't guarantee any particular level of competence. – mevaqesh Sep 29 '17 at 21:08
  • @mevaqesh there is no ordination like there was hundreds of years ago but each community/Yeshiva has their process by which a potential rabbi studies the applicable laws and then he gets ordination. – larry909 Sep 29 '17 at 21:17
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    That may be the case. I dont see how that affects anything I wrote. given that ordination is a matter of convention, so there is noobjective definition of areal rabbi. @larry – mevaqesh Sep 29 '17 at 21:21
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    Are you asking how you know a rabbi with or without ordination is reliable? Basically the same way you know if a mechanic or any other professional is reliable. – mevaqesh Sep 29 '17 at 21:23
  • @mevaqesh but most big companies will not hire mechanics unless you have a certification. The same thing should be with rabbis. That doesn't have anything to do with level of knowledge. – larry909 Sep 29 '17 at 21:52

1 Answers1

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Yes, to become a Rabbi you need to go to Yeshiva and study and get a certificate of ordination from the Yeshiva (or University).

Besides the RCA, there are many other orthodox communities that have their own standards, but they are mostly similar. Each community/Yeshiva have their process by which a potential rabbi studies the applicable daily laws a rabbi would need to know, and then gets ordination.

I dont know if the title 'Rabbi' is governed by any legal ramifications of law. so that's why it's important to look into each rabbi's ordination and certificate.

If you are not familiar with the process you should definitely find someone who understands and knows more the processes and ask their opinion.

See comment from user rosends with Wikipedia links.

larry909
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