THE UMPIRE RABBI

Over this shabbos my friend was telling me about this shul he goes to. He said the rabbi there is like a referee. That includes the part where they scream at the referee. People have no respect for him and they expect him to be like a rabbi from old Europe where what he said went.

He gave me a few cases. One he said was recently. There where two guys (of course). The first guy lets call him "A" was taking over for the rabbi one shabbos including his speech. So this person felt like it was his time to shine. So he made a long Devaar torah. While everyone was snoozing "A" by mistake skipped a page. Then after Leining "A" realized he missed something and decided to say what he missed. So after davening people came over to him and start demanding answers why he did this. One man well call him "B" really got into it and then A and B got into a real big fight. Soon after, A and B forgot about it or didnt care. Then Yom kippur was rolled around and so B went over to A to ask forgiveness but A would give no such thing. So A then goes over to a person well call him Rabbi (he was the rabbi) and starts trying to make Rabbi get involved. So the rabbi goes over to A and asks forgiveness on B's part and once again A wont give. So the rabbi goes back to B and says A doesn't want to give. Then B gets mad and starts screaming at the Rabbi and how its all his fault. After B is done the gossip starts to spread about A and B.

After Yom Kippur.... So the Rabbi wasn't Successful and now B is once again rambling at the Rabbi and how he isn't a rabbi since he cant even resolve one conflict. So that's how the story went and how the Rabbi became a pinata. If you want to know the only way these two were able to make up and its kind of weird is. Both of these men's wives had problems one fell from a chair and ended up in the hospital and the other had a stroke and ended up in the hospital. Same one, same floor, same week. So they met each other in the hospital and they started arguing who's fault it is and ended making up with each other (and they lived happily ever after....... probably not).

As my friend went on he said that this is nothing new and that last story of screaming at the rabbi was just a little worse than most stories. Also a few weeks ago the rabbi said in his speech on the Parsha of Bereishis that the parsha concludes with the building of the tower of Bavel which is clearly in the weekly Torah portion of Noach. So the rabbi gets it over his head, while many complain of the need for a new Rabbi. As I was told, the Rabbi isn't going anywhere and its just the norm. I told my friend I would never want to go to his shul. He nodded in agreement.

The point of all this was to show people the real use (or abuse) of a rabbi as a pinata and a referee. Please treat your rabbi with respect.