Rabbi

Rabbi (Heb., 'my master,' 'my teacher'), an honorary title of the Jewish Masters of the Law, which is first found applied after the time of Herod, subsequently to the disputes between the two schools of Shammai (q.v.) and Hillel (q.v.). It was in common use at the time of Christ, who is addressed as such by his disciples and the common people. Other forms of the same title are Rab ('master'), Rabbān ('our master'), and the Hellenistic Rabboni ('my master'). The title Rabbān was first given to the grandson of Hillel, Gamaliel (q.v.), as prince-president of the sanhedrim, and was only borne by seven other exalted chiefs of schools. At present nothing but the degree of Morenu ('our teacher'), bestowed upon a candidate who proves his erudition in the written and oral law and all its bearings before a college of rabbis, is wanted to render him eligible for the post of a rabbi, which, however, carries no authority whatsoever with it, save on a very few ritual points. It is a mere ignorant error to hold that the rabbi of our day is a kind of 'priest' in the sense of the Old Testament. He is simply the teacher of the young, delivers sermons, assists at marriages and divorces, and the like, and has to decide on some ritual questions. Up to the times of the removal of Jewish disabilities in Europe (see JEWS, Vol. VI. p. 328) he had on some occasions also to give judgment in civil matters. For the later Jewish, or so-called Rabbinical, literature, see JEWS, Vol. VI. p. 331 et seq.; for Rabbinical Jews and Rabbanites, see the same article, p. 330.