Reply To: Calling people with questionable smicha Rabbi

DaMoshe: “If someone graduates medical school, you generally call them Doctor, no matter how old they are. It has nothing to do with age, it is a title that you’ve earned by virtue of passing the exams needed.”

This is just something our society made up. In America, if someone learns Shakespeare or psychology in grad school they are also given the title doctor. You can learn philosophy from mamish kofrim atheists who are over basic mitzvah of “anochi Hashem ELokecha” and get your Ph.D and be called a doctor. The entire thing is so arbitrary. I understand the need to call someone who benefits the klal with an honorific such as a student in a school calling his teacher Rebbi. But to use the title (which is very often non-deserved) simply because you “earned” it is nothing but geiva. The smicha we have today is not comparable to the bnei smicha mentioned in the gemara.

mdd “Since when did mastery of davka a portion of Y.D. as opposed to anything else make one a Rabbi?”

Agreed.