Other well-known rabbis who are reincarnationists include Rabbi Yonassan Gershom, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, Talmud scholar Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, Rabbi DovBer Pinson, Rabbi David M. Wexelman, Rabbi Zalman Schachter, and many others.

Ben Adret, with the approval of other prominent Spanish rabbis, sent a letter to the community at Montpellier proposing to forbid the study of philosophy to those who were less than twenty-five years of age, and, in spite of keen opposition from the liberal section, a decree in this sense was issued by Ben Adret in 1305.

Accordingly, Ben Adret addressed to the congregation of Montpellier a letter, signed by fifteen other rabbis, proposing to issue a decree pronouncing the anathema against all those who should pursue the study of philosophy and science before due maturity in age and in rabbinical knowledge.

Encouraged, however, by letters signed by the rabbis of Argentière and Lunel, and particularly by the support of Kalonymus ben Todros, the nasi of Narbonne, and of the eminent Talmudist Asheri of Toledo, Ben Adret issued a decree, signed by thirty-three rabbis of Barcelona, excommunicating those who should, within the next fifty years, study physics or metaphysics before their thirtieth year of age ( basing his action on the principle laid down by Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed part one chapter 34 ), and had the order promulgated in the synagogue on Sabbath, July 26, 1305.

The rosh yeshivas at Yeshivat Hadar in New York, New York include rabbis Elie Kaunfer and Shai Held who were ordained by the Conservative movement ( at Jewish Theological Seminary ).

In matters of marriage and divorce, the State of Israel relies on its Chief Rabbinate to determine who is Jewish ; the Chief Rabbinate, following Orthodox practice, does not recognize the validity of conversions performed by Conservative rabbis and will require a Jew who was converted by a Conservative rabbi to undergo a second, Orthodox conversion to be regarded as a Jew for marriage and other purposes.

Whereas the written Torah has a fixed form, the Oral Torah is a living tradition that includes not only specific supplements to the written Torah ( for instance, what is the proper manner of shechita and what is meant by " Frontlets " in the Shema ), but also procedures for understanding and talking about the written Torah ( thus, the Oral Torah revealed at Sinai includes debates among rabbis who lived long after Moses ).

As far as we know, the Vilna Gaon is the only Rabbi who has actually claimed that he tried to create a Golem ; all such stories about other rabbis were told after their time.

Authority on theological and legal matters is not vested in any one person or organization, but in the sacred texts and rabbis and scholars who interpret them.

Following the destruction of Jerusalem and the expulsion of the Jews, Jewish worship stopped being centrally organized around the Temple, prayer took the place of sacrifice, and worship was rebuilt around the community ( represented by a minimum of ten adult men ) and the establishment of the authority of rabbis who acted as teachers and leaders of individual communities ( see Jewish diaspora ).

Like the Sadducees who relied only on the Torah, some Jews in the 8th and 9th centuries rejected the authority and divine inspiration of the oral law as recorded in the Mishnah ( and developed by later rabbis in the two Talmuds ), relying instead only upon the Tanakh.

Meanwhile, in the United States, wealthy Reform Jews helped European scholars, who were Orthodox in practice but critical ( and skeptical ) in their study of the Bible and Talmud, to establish a seminary to train rabbis for immigrants from Eastern Europe.

These left-wing Orthodox rabbis were joined by right-wing Reform rabbis who felt that Jewish law should not be entirely abandoned, to form the Conservative movement.

Beginning in the 1970s and influenced by new perspectives in the sociological and biological sciences, some Orthodox rabbis began to adopt more sympathetic positions toward those who feel drawn to homosexual activity, without ever accepting the legitimacy of homosexual activity itself.

When Steven Greenberg, who received Orthodox rabbinic ordination, publicly announced that he was homosexual, there was a significant response from rabbis of all denominations reported in the Jewish newspapers.

* Both in the United States and in Israel, several groups have sprung up in the last few years that seek to support those who identify as both Orthodox and homosexual and to promote understanding of homosexuality within Orthodox communities and among Orthodox rabbis.

The rabbis who contributed to the Mishnah are known as the Tannaim, of whom approximately 120 are known.

Today some rabbis who advocate some form of process theology include Bradley Shavit Artson, Lawrence A. Englander, William E. Kaufman, Harold Kushner, Anton Laytner, Michael Lerner, Gilbert S. Rosenthal, Lawrence Troster, Donald B. Rossoff, Burton Mindick, and Nahum Ward.

However, even on the most traditional view a few passages are regarded as the work of a group of rabbis who edited the Talmud after the end of the Amoraic period, known as the Saboraim or Rabbanan Savora ' e ( meaning " reasoners " or " considerers ").

# Judaism's oppressiveness reflects the disposition of Jesus ' opponents called " Pharisees " ( predecessors of the " rabbis "), who in their teachings and behavior were hypocrites ( see Woes of the Pharisees ).

Conversely, Elijah Delmedigo ( c. 1458 – c. 1493 ), in his Bechinat ha-Dat endeavored to show that the Zohar could not be attributed to Shimon bar Yochai, arguing that if it were his work, the Zohar would have been mentioned by the Talmud, as has been the case with other works of the Talmudic period, that had bar Yochai known by divine revelation the hidden meaning of the precepts, his decisions on Jewish law from the Talmudic period would have been adopted by the Talmud, that it would not contain the names of rabbis who lived at a later period than that of Simeon ; and that if the Kabbalah was a revealed doctrine, there would have been no divergence of opinion among the Kabbalists concerning the mystic interpretation of the precepts.

The Torah has little to say on the subject of survival after death, but by the time of the rabbis two ideas had made inroads among the Jews: one, which is probably derived from Greek thought, is that of the immortal soul which returns to its creator after death ; the other, which is thought to be of Persian origin, is that of resurrection of the dead.

Although Orthodox Judaism acknowledges that rabbis made many decisions and decrees regarding Jewish Law where the written Torah itself is non-specific, they did so only in accordance with regulations given to them by Moses on Mount Sinai ( see Deuteronomy 5: 8-13 ).

Conservative Judaism also made a number of changes to the role of women in Judaism, including counting women in the minyan and ordaining women as rabbis.

The " Stammaim " is a term that has been coined by some modern scholars for the rabbis who submitted anonymous comments on the Talmud, some of whom contributed during the period of the Amoraim, but most who made their contributions after the amoraic period.

In an interesting turn of events, the United States government recognized cantors as the first Jewish clergy, even before rabbis were recognized-as a congregation could be organized and led by a committee of Jewish " laymen ," who would not have the expertise in liturgy a hazzan would have, newly forming congregations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries sometimes hired a hazzan for a synagogue ( and made sure that a kosher butcher was established in the neighborhood ) for some time before setting about hiring a rabbi, seeing the hazzan ( and the butcher ) as a more immediate need.

After the Holocaust, some prominent rabbis made their home in America who established a moetzes (" council ") and the movement began to grow rapidly with the rise of the yeshiva-based and Hasidic Orthodox communities.

As a result of these disclosures the congress of rabbis in Brody proclaimed a universal Cherem ( excommunication ) against all " impenitent heretics ", and made it obligatory upon every pious Jew to seek them out and expose them.

Judaism arguably does not require uncompromising obedience to religious authority ; the case has been made that throughout Jewish history rabbis have circumvented laws they found unconscionable, such as capital punishment.

Although some Haredi rabbis may agree with this idea, the general view of Agudath Israel and many other orthodox rabbis is that for all practical purposes, through participating in the Israeli government, efforts can be made to promote religious Judaism in Israel.

Policy decisions are also weighed and decided by a Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah (" Council of Torah Sages "), a council of experienced communal rabbis, made up of mostly senior and elderly heads of yeshivas all very learned in Talmud, devoted to halakha ( classical Jewish law ), and guided by their knowledge and application of the classical " Code of Jewish Law ", the Shulkhan Arukh.

He blamed the way the Jews had been treated, persecution by Christians, and the " ridiculous " teachings of their rabbis, for their condition, and believed they could be brought into mainstream society and made citizens.

Berab made an error in not first obtaining the approval of the chief rabbis in Jerusalem, which led to an objection to having a Sanhedrin at that time.

Most of the Talmudic rabbis, and Josephus, following the belief that Urim meant lights, argued that divination by Urim and Thummim involved questions being answered by great rays of light shining out of certain jewels on the breastplate ; each jewel was taken to represent different letters, and the sequence of lighting thus would spell out an answer ( though there were 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, and only 12 jewels on the breastplate ); two Talmudic rabbis, however, argued that the jewels themselves moved in a way that made them stand out from the rest, or even moved themselves into groups to form words.

He felt that there may be halakhic methods for ordaining women as rabbis but that more time was needed before such could be legitimately instituted, and that the decision had been made as a policy decision by the governing body of the Seminary rather than as a psak halachah within the traditional rabbinic legal process.

The rabbis made this rule because they were concerned that a woman might receive a get ( divorce document ) and think she was divorced when in fact she was not ( because the man had voided the divorce in a court ).

One is made up of a Bet Din ( Jewish Court ) of congregational member rabbis from the Rabbinical Council of America, Montreal region ( RCA ).

" He goes on to write that although subsequent efforts were made to cooperate with the Orthodox, a letter from eleven Rosh Yeshivas was circulated declaring that Orthodox rabbis are forbidden to cooperate with Conservative rabbis.

In 1908, the chief rabbis of 45 countries made a joint statement officially declaring that Ethiopian Jews were indeed Jewish.

The elections of rabbis and judges were to be held at stated intervals, and the names of these dignitaries submitted to the bishop for approval ; there was to be a " rabbi of the court " for the presentation of communal questions before the proper authorities ; and the heads of the congregation were made answerable for the conduct of the community.

After the Inquisition, they were exiled to Italy, from whence they made their way to northern, and then later eastern, Europe, where they served as rabbis in Telšiai, Lithuania, and teachers in its Telshe yeshiva.

The rabbis ' beards, turbans and gowns made them almost indistinguishable from their Muslim scholars, while both were referred to by the title of mullah.