Writings from Rabbi Glickman

The more I learn, the more I become aware of how little I really know.

Recently, for example, I was writing a letter to several dozen of my clergy colleagues at local churches, when I realized that I wasn’t quite sure how to properly address its intended recipients.  Since the letter was going to people I respect, I wanted to be sure to get it right.

So I called some Christian friends, peppered them with questions on this puzzling topic, and was able to glean the following information:

• Catholics have priests; Protestants have ministers.  That is, of course, unless the Protestants are Episcopalian Protestants, for Episcopalians have priests, too. The word “priest” is etymologically related to the word “Presbyterian.” In many ways, the relationship ends there.
• Ministers are called to preach; priests are called to minister.  But priests tend to minister quite differently than the ways in which ministers minister.
• Catholics call their priests “Father,” and they call their monks “Brother.”  But they never call their priest’s monk, “Uncle.”
• Most non-Episcopal Protestant clergypeople are ministers, and most ministers can be called reverend.    Catholic and Episcopal priests bear the title “reverend,” too.

Confused yet?

• “Reverend” is usually a religious title, but only sometimes a form of address.  Lutherans, for example, call their ministers, “Pastor,” and Catholics, as we’ve already established, call their priests “Father.”  Thus, in a 3-church town, where each church is led by a person named Reverend Smith, the Lutherans would call their Reverend Smith “Pastor Smith”; the Catholics would call their Reverend Smith “Father Smith”; and the Methodists would call their Reverend Smith…well...“Reverend Smith.”
• Priests – that is, the reverends who are called Father – can sometimes enrich their titles via job-promotion.  So, as they move up the church’s hierarchical ladder, they can become, successively, “Right Reverend,” “Very Reverend,” and “Most Reverend.”  Certain congregations also have members deemed “Least Reverend,” but that’s an unofficial title which rarely appears on the letterhead.
• And this is only the beginning.  I haven’t even gotten to the canons and the bishops and the cardinals and how these titles should be adjusted for the women who hold them and who uses first names and who doesn’t.  A Presbyterian minister friend of mine prides himself on the fact that one of his official titles is “Steward of the Mysteries of God.”  I call him Stew.

With all due respect to Christians and Christianity, I just don’t get it.  I have deep and profound admiration for Christianity, especially for the many great men and women who lead its churches with love and wisdom.  In fact, this respect is precisely why I so desperately want to understand all of this.  But I must admit that I find the complexity of Christian clergy titles to be nothing less than astonishing.

On the other hand, I suppose that there must be elements of Judaism that make perfect sense to me, but are completely baffling to outsiders.  After all, the statement, “Oh, I’d love to have that steak for dinner, but I had a cheese sandwich for lunch, so I can’t have meat and I suppose I’ll have fish instead…and please serve it before 6:12, because tomorrow is a fast-day,” strikes me as perfectly logical.  To most non-Jews, however, it’s gibberish.  The same goes for “Oy! Rosh Hashanah is early this year, tomorrow is Shabbes, and all I have in the freezer are long challahs!”  Again, perfectly rational to me; jabberwocky to many others.

Fortunately, we Jews and Christians know more about one-another these days than perhaps ever before.  And yet, even now, we all have so much to learn!  I, for example, a person who prides himself on knowing much about other religions, don’t even know how to properly address my Christian clergy colleagues.  If even that remains beyond me, I shudder to think how other many far more central elements of Christianity I still need to learn.  Alas, in my ignorance of other religions, I know that I am not alone.

The antidote to this ignorance, of course, is absurdly simple – inquiry!  When baffled by another religion, just ask about it.  The results can be quite enlightening.

This may seem obvious but, sadly, we are often reluctant to ask questions.  Doing so reveals our ignorance, it demands that we reach outside ourselves, and, of course, we don’t ever want to be a bother.  As long as we remain cloistered in our own religious cells, however, the walls separating us will remain thick and isolating.  Conversely, exploring our world and its people with the passionate inquisitiveness that makes us human can allow us to transcend those boundaries in truly magnificent ways.

As a rabbi, I am delighted when non-Jews contact me with questions about Judaism, and I only wish more would.  What a blessing it is to live in a time and place in which open religious inquiry can happen so freely.

And as for my perplexity over Christian clergy titles, well, I’ll keep on working on that one.  Maybe I should call my Presbyterian friend and bug him a little more.  After all, he is a “Steward of the Mysteries of God,” and I, for my part, remain mystified, though still committed, to learning more.

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