Calling all Hebrew scholars who read this blog: I would like, once and for all, to know what the word “rabbi” means. Some people say it means “teacher,” but I have been told by more than one person that that isn’t accurate.
Could my learned readers and Hebrew scholars give me a little help here?
I’m not a Hebrew scholar of any type, but oddly enough I was looking this up last week. It literally means “my great one”.
I’m not especially learned, but here are my $.02:
“Rabbi” (pronounced “rah-bee” in Hebrew) literally means “my master.” It comes from the word “rav,” whch means “master.” When we lead the Grace after Meals, we say “Rabbotai, nevarekh” — “My masters, let us recite the blessing.” In modern Hebrew, “rabbotai” is the equivalent of “gentlemen.” On airplanes or in theaters, one frequently hears announcements begin with the phrase: “Gevirotai ve-rabbotai…” which is simply “Ladies and gentlemen.”
One example of usage from Talmudic times: There is a saying in the Talmud, “Kanah eved, kanah rabbo” — “One who buys a slave buys his own master.” This was because owners were under such strong obligations to treat their slaves well that a slave might actually be considered his owner’s master in some ways.
Now that I think about it, “rav” seems to me to have much the same connotations as the word “master” does today: a revered teacher or simply a free, independent individual.
I suspect that what you are after is not the derivation of the word, but its precise meaning. And that’s tricky. We tend to use the term for someone who has received smicha (in the Orthodox world) or ordination elsewhere. We also use it for the leader of a congregation, who may not have this type of certification, or for a (male) teacher of Jewish law and tradition. Sometimes it is simply used as a term of respect.
The answer to your question really depends on what you want to do with it.
I just want to know if it means teacher or not. A rabbi that I know says it does, and someone else I know said that he’s wrong. I don’t know enough about Hebrew to say for sure.
I’m pretty sure that’s not the meaning of the word. Although a lot of rabbis are teachers, not all are. And it’s definite that not all teachers are rabbis.
“Moreh” or “Morah” (male or female) means teacher.
I’ll have to agree with the others. The historic and most literal translation would be “master”. A less literal, but probably more accurate translation (reflecting the need for ordination in order to be a rabbi) might be “doctor” (in the PhD sense of the word.)
Translating “rabbi” as “teacher” is like calling everybody with a PhD “professor”.
According to The Jewish Virtual Library, rabbi originates from the Hebrew meaning “teacher”. According to a simple Hebrew dictionary it means master or teacher. But, according to a very good Hebrew dictionary it means ‘my master’, as others have said, and is a title given to a teacher of theological studies.
I shall continue with what my wife says, who is an Israeli and I consider a Hebrew scholar. She said we can’t just go by the word Rabbi in Hebrew, but have to go to the root. The root (rav), according to this same better dictionary I mentioned previously, means ‘strong, important, honored’. Therefore, Rabbi, means ‘my honored one’ or ‘my important one’.
Teaching is certainly a prime function of a rabbi, so in a sense that’s correct. But it is not the literal meaning of the word. At least in the Orthodox world, I cannot think of a rabbi who doesn’t teach.
The root of rabbi is rav, which is cognate with ram, which appears in related and neighboring languages meaning “high”.
Ramat Gan.
RamAllah.
Rimmon.
Hiram (Ahiram).
Yehoram.
Rabbi as “my master” is good etymology and a good description. That Judaism expects one who knows more to teach others is logical, but not linguistically historical.