Thread by @JYuter

In all seriousness, I remember having conversations over 10 years ago with Conservative and Reform colleagues who were concerned with the internet making rabbis obsolete. Specifically, "Rabbi Google" came up often.

https://twitter.com/maimonides_nutz/status/1439458841574313985

My take was (and is) that there is no shortage of information or access to information but people are also looking for *trust* in the validity or authority of that information. That not only requires a human but someone who demonstrates trustworthiness on a regular basis.

Consider how often people with "Rabbi" in their title make grand proclamations about Judaism on Twitter, and how often their grand proclamations are easily challenged if not completely debunked in a matter of seconds.

Relatedly, years ago a friend who was (and still is) a pulpit rabbi in a prominent synagogue was conflicted about providing rabbinic assistance to a havura minyan in the neighborhood and if it would cannibalize his own shul.

My response was that he knows he does so much more as a rabbi and that if he really believed all he had to offer could be transmitted in a single half-hour conversation then his shul deserved to be cannibalized.

Thankfully, he took my response as tough-love encouragement :-)

Point being, an underappreciated aspect of the rabbinate is *personal relationships* w/constituents. It's not only important for trust, as mentioned above, but it's essential when tailoring psak or pastoral theology to an individual's needs

Robots can't do that...

Yet