Reply To: If you do not have s'micha, can you advertise yourself as "Rabbi"?

Wolf: the classic ordained rabbanim who went off the d were Elisha Ben Abuya and Jesus. They both received the mesora from the top of the chain- indisputable Torah M’sinai at the highest caliber. I’m not sure what people from the kehilla referred to them after. (I’m not talking about when the Gemara recorded them years later- I’m talking about their contemporaries) Maybe they were still called Rabbi by their peers? Who knows