The issue of allowing women to become rabbis is not under active debate within the Orthodox community, although there is widespread agreement that women may often be consulted on matters of Jewish religious law.
Orthodox rabbinical students work to gain knowledge in Talmud, the early and late medieval commentators and Jewish law.
Some Hasidic groups still reserve the term Rabbi only for the great, acknowledged sages, while most other types of Judaism have adopted the term for any ordained teacher of Jewish law.
Hasidim will therefore prefer using Hebrew names for rabbinic titles based on older traditions.
Rabbinical students usually earn a secular degree (e.g., Master of Hebrew Letters) upon graduation.
The first time the word "Rabbi" is mentioned in Jewish sources is in the Mishnah, commonly thought to be codified around 200 C.E., by Rabbi Judah Ha Nasi.
Traditionally, a man obtains semicha (rabbinic ordination) after the completion of an arduous learning program in the codes of halakha (Jewish law) and responsa (written opinions by legal scholars).
Conservative seminaries are now ordaining female rabbis and training female cantors.
The State of Israel, in which Orthodox Jews control an important political party, recognizes only the legitimacy of Orthodox rabbis.
The rabbinical college for Reconstructionist Judaism is called the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and is located in Wyncote, Pennsylvania, just outside Philadelphia.
Conservative Judaism has less stringent study requirements for Talmudic studies compared to Orthodoxy but adds additional requirements for rabbinic ordination: pastoral care and psychology, the historical development of Judaism, and academic biblical criticism.
Many of the other Talmudic sages were referred to either as Rabbi (the Palestinian form) or Rab (the Babylonian form).
Historically and until the present, recognition of a rabbi relates to a community's perception of the rabbi's competence to interpret Jewish law and act as a teacher on central matters within Judaism.
Qualifications for rabbinical ordination differ among the various Jewish traditions.
Orthodox rabbis do not recognize marriages and conversions by non-Orthodox rabbis.
Today there are hundreds of women who hold official ordination as rabbis, including many who lead large congregations.
Orthodox rabbis typically study at dedicated religious schools known as yeshivas.
Following their tradition, as codified in the Talmud, local synagogue leaders gradually assumed the role which would come to be known in later times as the rabbinical office.
Orthodox Judaism's National Council of Young Israel and Modern Orthodox Judaism's Rabbinical Council of America have set up supplemental pastoral training programs for their rabbis.
Traditionally, rabbis have never been an intermediary between God and man.
Rabbis within Orthodoxy, and to a lesser extent within Conservative Judaism, are reluctant to accept the authority of other rabbis whose halakhic standards are not as strict as their own.
Entrance requirements to a Conservative rabbinical study include a strong background within Jewish law and liturgy, knowledge of Hebrew, familiarity with rabbinic literature, Talmud, and the completion of an undergraduate university degree.
Several efforts are underway within Modern Orthodox communities to include qualified women in activities traditionally limited to rabbis.
Within the modern Orthodox community, rabbis still mainly deal with teaching and questions of Jewish law, but they are increasingly dealing with these same pastoral functions.
Most Orthodox rabbis hold this ordination, qualifying them primarily as teachers of the authentic Jewish tradition.
The Pharisees, like Jesus, were interested in inner piety; it was the Saducees, who controlled the Temple, who were interested in ritual observance.
Reform and Reconstructionist rabbis learn less Talmud and Jewish legal tradition than in Orthodox or Conservative seminaries.
The curriculum for obtaining semicha as rabbis for Hasidic scholars is the same as described above.
The word "Rabbi" is derived from the Hebrew root word ???, rav, which in biblical Hebrew means great or distinguished.
The Reform and Reconstructionist rabbinical seminaries require students to earn a bachelor's degree before entering the rabbinate as well as have a basic knowledge of Hebrew.
Non-Orthodox rabbis, on a day-to-day business basis, now spend more time on these traditionally non-rabbinic functions than they do teaching or answering questions on Jewish law and philosophy.
Modern Orthodox rabbinical students, such as at New York's Yeshiva University, study some elements of modern theology or philosophy, as well as the classical rabbinic works on such subjects.
Women do not, and cannot, become "rabbis" in Orthodox Judaism, whether of the Hasidic variety or otherwise.
Conservative Judaism has less stringent study requirements for Talmudic studies compared to Orthodoxy but adds additional requirements for rabbinic ordination: pastoral care and psychology, the historical development of Judaism, and academic biblical criticism.
The divisions between the various branches within Judaism manifest strongly on questions of whether rabbis from one movement recognize the legitimacy and/or authority of rabbis in another.
The common use of the title of "Rabbi" is sometimes derided by Hasidim, because this term is reserved only for great sages.
The State of Israel, in which Orthodox Jews control an important political party, recognizes only the legitimacy of Orthodox rabbis.
Many Orthodox rabbis hold that a beth din (court of Jewish law) should be made up of dayanim.