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America's Real Top Rabbis?

4/24/2012

 
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Now this is embarrassing. 

Every year for the last several years, Newsweek has run a list of the "Top 50 Rabbis," and each year it garners as much criticism as attention. (Well, I suppose that criticism is attention, and the fact that controversy creates interest is not lost on Newsweek and its advertisers.) This year's Newsweek list was strategically timed, coming out at Passover.

I cannot say anything bad about about the men and women on the list. Those I know personally are truly excellent rabbis—talented, brilliant, compassionate and passionate people. Let me disclose (and brag) that four of the fifty are my teachers, five are my friends, and I went to high school with one of them, too. 

Most of the problem with the list, I think, is just the idea of ranking rabbis at all. It reminds me of the way I used to rank baseball cards when I was a kid. (What's better, a Bruce Sutter rookie card or a Rollie Fingers MVP card?). "Collecting" rabbis like this seems contrary to the values that we most admire in rabbis. Can you rank one human being created in the image of God over another?

Well, now it seems that I have to get down off of that sanctimonious high horse, because someone has put me on a list of "top" rabbis. Contending that Newsweeek's list does not represent the "unsung heroes of the rabbinical world," My Jewish Learning has compiled their own list of "America's Real Top Rabbis 2012," and I'm on it. Looking at the list, it also includes many fine rabbis who do their work with sincere love of Torah, skill in meeting the needs of people in need, and dedication to the communities they serve. I'm honored to be counted among them. 

Yet, the list in My Jewish Learning is, after all, just another list. It does not include the movers and shakers of the rabbinic world—as does the Newsweek list—but it is somebody else's attempt to rank and rate. Being on the list does not really mean anything. There are rabbis on the list who give great sermons, who are great teachers, and who help people through crises with care and compassion. There are rabbis who have the same abilities who are not on the list. How do you rate one rabbi above or below others based on such qualities?

I can imagine the whispers in my own congregation: Who does he think he is, Carl Yastrzemski?

So, thank you, My Jewish Learning, and thank you to the folks who nominated me. I'm flattered and humbled. However, to climb back on top of that hobby horse of mine, let me also say that Judaism in the twenty-first century does not really need "top" rabbis. We don't need to agonize over who ranks high or low. My baseball card collection is now resting on the bottom of a landfill (thanks, Mom), and that is where this year's top rabbi lists will end up, too.

What we do need is a Judaism that brings meaningful experiences into people's lives and that allows us to remember the joy and purpose of our existence. You cannot buy that experience with a "top rabbi." It is up to all of us to build it together.
Reb Rachel link
4/24/2012 02:38:31 pm

"It is up to all of us to build it together." Amen, amen, selah!

That said -- what strikes me as lovely about the My Jewish Learning list is that instead of being a top-down sort of list, a list of the people some editorial board thought were important and relevant, it's a bottom-up sort of list: a list of ordinary rabbis who were nominated by people whose lives they have touched. (And no, for the record, I didn't nominate you -- though in retrospect, I certainly could have.) It's a gift to the 20 of you whose names appear on the list. Someone (maybe multiple someones!) wanted to say: thank you, Rabbi, for impacting my life. And that's pretty wonderful, if you ask me.

David Henig
4/24/2012 03:00:09 pm

Bingo! Yasher Koach for having been nominated. That having been said, there is an intrinsic problem with all these list and the "ranking" that follows. From the time the first list was published in Newsweek, on some sort of whim of a couple of editors, I have had a problem with someone being place on the list because s/he had the largest congregation or the most attendance at x service or whatever, all mostly put on the list for some ephemeral reason that in the greater scheme of things really means nothing. Does Newsweek make a similar list for other faith communities?

Matthue @ MJL link
5/2/2012 09:33:51 am

Thanks for this thoughtful piece! It's a really good analysis of our contest, and we're honored by it.

One of my favorite things about the contest is that voters don't have to choose just one rabbi -- you can vote for one, or five, or all twenty if you want. I really wish we could've posted every nomination we received, but our system couldn't hold it. This way, we get to honor a lot of amazing rabbis -- not in competition with each other, but in celebration of them all.


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