Shavua tov. If your rabbi didn’t talk about believing and supporting victims of sexual abuse (either in a speech, email, or even a note in the newsletter), it might be time to find a new rabbi. Even better, it might be time to rethink your relationship with rabbis.
As Asher says perfectly here, there’s nothing that rabbis learn in their training that makes them remotely qualified to handle sexual abuse. Even @YUNews’ rabbinical school, a “Modern Orthodox” institution, offers no formal training to their students.
https://twitter.com/HareianiBlog/status/1476976251751604226
Why? Because Orthodoxy’s idea of the rabbi’s role, and in turn laypeople’s relationships with rabbis, is deeply, deeply skewed and unhealthy. People think rabbis have the answers for everything, that they’re God’s messengers on Earth because they spent a few years learning Torah.
In truth, there’s nothing in the Torah that Orthodox rabbis study for ordination that necessarily gives them a moral compass, nor the humility required to learn from and listen to other experts. If your rabbi doesn’t have both, what is their spiritual leadership worth?
All the title “rabbi” connotes is that a person passed their tests for ordination, not even that they learned the material well. That’s it. So trust YOURSELF to decide if a rabbi is actually a good person. If they’re not speaking out against abuse right now, they’re probably not.
By the way, it’s an open secret at YU’s rabbi school (and prob others) that students use old “Mesorah” notes to study and don’t actually learn how the halachic decision-making process works. Which reinforces senior rabbis’ authority over them. But that’s a whole nother thread.
Since people are upset about this, I’ll clarify: all I’m saying is YU musmachim aren’t taught what they deserve to be taught (how to pasken) and that rabbinical school is just like any other graduate school where people use old notes. Most people don’t come out geniuses in Torah.
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