Rabbi Raymond Apple
Rabbi Raymond Applefamily

Q. Why would anyone want to be a rabbi?

A. Someone must have told you that it is hard to be a rabbi, and it certainly is.

Yet there is another point of view. It is said that SY Agnon, the Nobel laureate, became a writer because he felt that someone was dictating the words and he had no choice but to write them.

Theodor Herzl spoke of being borne on eagles’ wings and it was impossible to get off.

Abraham Joshua Heschel told his students that Rainer Maria Rilke, the German poet, told a young man who asked whether he should become a poet, "Only if you cannot live without being a poet", and Heschel added, "Be a rabbi if you are certain your life depends upon it".

So why would anyone want to be a rabbi? Because they feel they are called to it from On High and have no choice: they cannot run away from their destiny.

Of course there are rabbis who entered the profession because they were desperate for a job, like the teachers about whom Bernard Shaw (or was it someone else?) wrote, "Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach". Sometimes they succeed, but it’s a miracle.

And there are rabbis who entered the rabbinate for the right reasons but found their idealism was squashed.

So the problem is not only why one becomes a rabbi but whether the community taskmasters will allow a person to remain a rabbi.

Fanaticism and the Three Weeks

The national mourning period from 17 Tammuz until after Tishah B’Av recalls a Talmudic story about three wealthy men who were living in Jerusalem at the time when the enemy were besieging the city.

One rich man said, "I can provide enough wheat and barley for everyone".

"I can supply wine, salt and oil", said the second.

The third said, "I have enough firewood for the whole city".

Many of the people said the city could thus withstand a long siege.

But a group of zealots who were determined to fight set fire to the stores of food and caused a famine.

The residents of the city now had no choice but to take up arms.

The resistance was doomed; in the end the city fell.

The moral of the story may be that solidarity and mutual respect can be irreparably harmed by acts of fanaticism and zealotry.

Rabbi Raymond Apple was for many years Australia’s highest profile rabbi and the leading spokesman on Jewish religious issues. After serving congregations in London, Rabbi Apple was chief minister of the Great Synagogue, Sydney, for 32 years. He also held many public roles, particularly in the fields of chaplaincy, interfaith dialogue and Freemasonry, and is the recipient of several national and civic honours. Now retired, he lives in Jerusalem and blogs at http://www.oztorah.com