Rabbi

My Teacher or My Great One

I often wondered what the word Rabbi actually means, I often asked around and always get the answer of, It simply means teacher. And this is the commonly held belief, that rabbi simply means My teacher. If this were true then there wold be no problem whatsoever in calling a person Rabbi if they were teaching you, and that would mean teaching you anything, which would mean that a teacher of Mathematics, Physics, quantum field theory, spiritualism, Buddhism, Islam, etc. as well as Torah teachers could and should be called Rabbis if the meaning of teacher holds to be true and correct. So, me being me, I wanted to be sure of this meaning, is it right, is it wrong, if it is wrong then what does it actually mean, and if it is different then why are we being misled? And the final question we need to address is this: Should we use the term as applied to people or not? So, for the first question, what does rabbi actually mean? First of all we need to get to the root word, in this case it is simply rab, the i suffix denotes singular possessiveness, i.e. something belonging to me, my, mine, etc. So dropping the isuffix we are left with the root, rab and the meaning of this Hebrew word is as follows, the definitions are taken from three well accepted works. The first is the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, the second is the Complete Word Study Dictionary of the OT, and the third is the Ancient Hebrew Lexicon, by Jeff Benner. Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. 2099a rab - many, much, great. This is a common Hebrew adjective meaning much or many. The root is cognate to both the Ugaratic rb and the Akkadian rabu which have the primary meaning of many. 2099b rab - chief, captain. A title of Babylonian origin and appears in both Hebrew and Ugaritic. This denotes a chief or an executive of a group such as a military detachment. 2099c rob - multitude, abundance. Complete Word Study Dictionary of the OT 7227 rab - an adjective meaning many, much, great, long, mighty, it indicates much in either quantity, glory, or power. 7229 rab - an Aramaic adjective meaning great, boastful, large; used to indicate words of insolence, (dan. 7:20); it indicates a king which is great (Dan:2:10); a great nation (Dan 4:30). Ancient Hebrew Lexicon 1439 RB - the action definition of the root is rule; the pictograph of the head, resh, denotes a head, the beyt is a pictograph of a tent, so the original meaning of ruler of the family, or the home. It also carries the meaning of master, one who is in abundance of authority. It also means

abundance, as in abundance of members. it also carries the meaning of archer, but with an unknown connection to the root. So in essence the word means, much, many, mighty, master, head of the family, abundance, chief, captain. In all those meaning there is not one mention of the word meaning teacher, or to teach, train, instruct, etc. And if you add the i suffix to those words you get, my great one, my mighty, my abundant one, my glory, my power; it can even mean my boastful one. Yes it can mean, My head of the home or household, but in all these meanings there is not one mention of a teacher, unless of course you count the head of the house as the instructor of the family, but that is just one of the heads functions, he should also provide for the family, protect the family, etc. So if this definition is to be used, that of my teacher due to the meaning of head of the house then all the others should apply, like my protector, my provider, etc. Also, as the word, Rabbi, is transliterated rather than translated thereby making it a title rather than a simple word. The rules of translation are simple, with names they are always transliterated, that means keeping the sounds of the original languages letters and taking the sounds forward into another language rather than translating the meaning. Titles can either be transliterated or translated, and most times both are used to convey the whole meaning of the title. All other words are translated into the other language, that is the meanings of the words are translated into the other language rather than the sounds. So, as the Hebrew word is transliterated, rather than translated, they are using the word, rabbi, as a title and turning it into something special. As a title the word Rabbi literally means, My Abundance, My Many, My Power, My Archer, My Captain, My Chief, My Father, etc. Calling someone captain, archer, father, chief, in and of itself is not wrong, and in many circumstances it is right to do so, but by adding the My your giving the terms an element of worship and adoration, at the very least your bestowing affection to the degree that it borders on worship. Look at the Hitler, how the people called him, MY Fuhrer, showering on him adoration and making him some sort of Demi-god. Also look at Muhammad, Stalin, Lennin, Mao, and the multitude of others, they all received the same sort of adoration, they were all considered to be, My Abundance, My Captain, My Leader, My Mighty, My Power, etc, etc. Then look at what happened in all the cases, disaster and death. So where did the term Rabbi come from as a title which was to be honored? In Ancient Yisrael there was never an office or a title of Rabbi, of course the word rab existed, but it was not applied to men in the way it is today. Ancient Yisrael was ruled by a system of Kings and priests, both of which were guided by the prophets, there never was an office of the Rabbi. The term was applied to men, as it is today, when the house of Yahudah were in exile in Babylon. Rab was the title of the Babylonian sages who taught in the Babylonian academies whose key work was to compile the Babylonian Talmud, the Oral law/torah, which comprises the Mishnah and the Gemara. The sects of the Scribes and Pharisees who came out of the Babylonian captivity were the first known to use the term as we know it today. Now to the Scriptures Mat 23:2-12 states: saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit on the seat of Mosheh. Therefore, whatever they say to you to guard, guard and do. But do not do according to their works, for they say, and do not do. For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on mens shoulders, but with their

finger they do not wish to move them. And they do all their works to be seen by men, and they make their tfillen wide and lengthen the tzittzits of their garments, and they love the best place at feasts, and the best seats in the congregations, and the greetings in the market-places, 8and to be called by men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But you, do not be called Rabbi, for One is your Rabbi, the Messiah, and you are all brothers. 9And do not call anyone on earth your father, for One is your Father, He who is in the heavens. Neither be called leaders, for One is your Leader, the Messiah. But the greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted. In verse eight we can plainly see that the Messiah tells each and every one of us NOT to be called Rabbi, and the reason is this, we already have our Rabbi, Messiah Yahushua, and quite frankly He is all we need. Also, by taking the name to ourselves we are in effect taking to ourselves the role of the Messiah Himself, we are replacing HIm in peoples lives with ourselves. And that makes anyone doing this an anti-Messiah, we would be in opposition to him and become his enemy, whilst at the same time we would be aligning ourselves with the adversary which would mean we would be born of him, that is from below, and we will spend our eternity with him in the abyss. This section of Scripture also goes on to say that we are to call no man father or leader, and the reason for this is simple, we have only one Spiritual Father and He is Yahuah. This is not talking about our mortal fathers in any sense what so ever, it is right and good to call the man who raises us father. No indeed, this is referring to those who would class themselves as our spiritual leaders, like the popes of the world, like all the priests, like most purveyors of religion. Which leads us to the term, leader, we are not even to take this upon ourselves, and again the reason is simple to understand, our leader is the Set-Apart and cleansing Spirit, out Spiritual Mother who was set-apart from Father from the beginning, from before the creation of the universe. She is the one who guides us, she is the one who leads the assembly, the family of Yahuah, no one else. Yahuah is the Father, our Rabbi is the Son, and our leader is the Spirit of Father, and for any one to take on these titles to themselves they will be taking on the role of the Mighty Authority/One, the Son and/or the Set-Apart Spirit, none of which is a wise thing to do.