Transcript
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Is it okay if I call my Rabbi by his
first name?
Absolutely not.
One of the ways that a person can
certainly bring
punishment upon themselves
is by
ignoring
the honor of the Torah scholars.
And Torah scholar doesn't just mean
the greatest scholars of the generation
or Moshe Rabbeinu.
But rather even
your Rabbi today. How do we know?
The Mishnah in Masechet Avot begins with
Moshe kibel Torah miSina'i. Moshe got
the Torah at Mount Sinai. u'mesara
leYehoshua.
He gave it to Yehoshua bin Nun.
v'Yehoshua leZkenim. And Yehoshua bin
Nun gave it to the elders.
Why doesn't it say the names of the
elders?
The 70 elders.
I mean, the Torah has 304,805
letters. Surely it could fit the names
of the elders.
Why didn't it put the names of the
elders?
To teach us
that the elders back then
could very well be
the same thing as the elders in this
generation or any other generation.
And no one would come and say, "Listen,
if Moshe Rabbeinu told me or Yehoshua
bin Nun told me to do something, I would
do it.
But it's you telling me. I'm not going
to listen to you."
Therefore the Torah says, "No, no, no.
You're right. Moshe Rabbeinu is great.
Yehoshua bin Nun is great. But also the
elders.
And since the Torah doesn't mention who
the elders are, that's because it's
telling you anyone that is a Torah
scholar,
that's telling you the word of God.
So now
the Gemara says
one of the sages rebuked the people.
Says,
"Foolish are the people
that stand up
when they bring the Torah scroll into
the synagogue or take it out of the aron
hakodesh,
but they don't stand up when the living
Torah walks into the room. What's the
living Torah? The Torah scholar, the
rabbi.
And even more so,
foolish are people that don't stand up
for the wife of the rabbi. Why? Ish
tokefu for.
So now,
a person
that
calls his rabbi by first name,
that means that he thinks that him and
his rabbi are in the same
same level.
He's no different than his friend Joe at
the bar. He's no different than Steve,
his co-worker.
And unfortunately,
this is not only
a disrespect of the rabbi, it's
disrespect of the Torah.
Why? Because you're not respecting the
rabbi because he has a title
