<HTML>Having re-read the earlier thread about women as principals, I am trusting
that this question will not overlap too much, if at all.
I am a bit perplexed as to what a school would be thinking when they are
looking to fill a job with a person who has the title of "Rabbi" - either
as teacher or as administrator. Please fill me in if I am missing major
details, but the title Rabbi as it is used today rarely has anything to do
with Jewish education in a formal sense. If a person has Semicha from YU,
that means that they have learned Aveilut, Nidda, and Issur V'Heiter, gone
to gemara shiur for two years, and taken a smattering of other classes.
They can be completely clueless in areas of law more likely to come up in
classrooms (e.g. Shabbat, brachot, holidays), and can be completely
ignorant of Tanach. One who receives Semicha from the Rabbanut in Israel
has to pass similar halacha exams, with none of the other requirements
that YU adds on. A person who receives Semicha from Rav Zalman Nechemiah
Goldberg in Jerusalem does even less.
Now, assuming that these programs of learning are the sources of the
majority of ordinations of males applying for jobs in "modern" (or
centrist or whatever term makes everyone most comfortable) Orthodox
schools, my question is why is this really a desirable degree, other than
the fact that it often indicates that the person has spent time learning
beyond that which he is required to know?
For the sake of brevity (more or less), I will leave off here. My
apologies if this question is not as complete as it could be.
Aaron Ross
YU Semicha and NYU Rabbinic Literature</HTML>
