Beyond the Glory: Community Rabbis in Eastern Europe

✍ Scribed by Mordechai Zalkin

• Publisher: De Gruyter Oldenbourg
• Year: 2020
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 254
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The heroes of Beyond the Glory are not the famous rabbis, the heads of the yeshivas, or Hasidic righteous, but rather the "second circle" rabbis - the community rabbis in 19^th century Eastern Europe, the backbone of the rabbinical world of the time,those who knew the world of their community members closely and were required to answer a wide range of questions, both daily and existential. Who were these rabbis? What were their training processes? How did they win their positions? Did they win "tenure," or was the threat of dismissal constantly hovering above their heads? How were their working conditions and their financial situation? Were they considered as spiritual shepherds and social leaders of the community? What was their relationship with the local rabbinic scholars and the economic elite? How did they navigate between their duties as halachic rulers and their desire to engage in studying and teaching? This book attempts to answer these questions, and many others, based on examining the world of over a thousand community rabbis.

✦ Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Inhalt
Part I
Introduction
Chapter 1. The Path to the Rabbinic Throne
Chapter 2. “So that his honor may dwell in our midst”
Chapter 3. “With Money or its Equivalent”: Buying the Rabbinate
Chapter 4. On the Verge of the “Promised Land”
Epilogue “To one who is great in Torah study”?
Part II
Chapter 5. Upon the Rabbinic Throne
Chapter 6. The Rabbi and His Community
Chapter 7. The Rabbi and His Family
Chapter 8. Facing Reality
Epilogue. “Master of the City”?
Bibliography
Index of Names and Sites