quote:

Originally posted by rob:
does the term "the rebbe" imply a universality to whichever group's rebbe the speaker has in mind?

if there is a rabbi from whom I learned the majority of my Torah I believe I can accurately use the term rebbe, that he is my rebbe. This might be my first year Hebrew school teacher (except that mine was a she), or it could be my shul's rabbi, or any of a number people. And I think the term is perfectly valid for any rabbi teaching a class in a school, that his students refer to him as the rebbe of that class.

I would never mean to imply that my rebbe must be another person's rebbe. And I am similarly uncomfortable whenever someone else talks about their rebbe or one particular group's rebbe in such universal ways as "The Rebbe".

If my concern has any validity, I would like to know what terms could be used to describe, for example, the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, which wouldn't irritate those who would find the term "The Rebbe" to be irritating?

I have also discovered that it doesn't endear me to those who like to use the term "The Rebbe" to refer their particular rebbe to ask them "Which Rebbe?" particularly if it is at each invocation of that term which was not immediately preceided by an unambiguous definition of their meaning.

Has anyone else made a similar discovery?