The Rabbi as Symbolic Exemplar: By the Power Vested in Me »

The solution to the growing problem of stress and burnout in rabbis!

Written by a practicing clinical psychologist who spent 10 years as a congregational rabbi, The Rabbi As Symbolic Exemplar: By the Power Vested in Me presents positive solutions to the inevitable negative effects of symbolic exemplarhood, coaching rabbis through dilemmas of the “inner soul.” Being a rabbi means serving as a Symbolic Exemplar of the best that is in humankind, being experienced and treated and expected to act as a stand-in for God, and a walking, talking symbol of all that Jewish tradition represents. The burden of being a symbolic exemplar of God is extraordinary, and the struggle to live up to its “requirements” can be one of loneliness, frustration, and despair, alienating rabbis who tire of living in a glass house.

The Rabbi As Symbolic Exemplar examines how the symbolic role that serves as the source of the rabbi’s authority and power can lead to disillusionment and disenchantment. Author Jack H Bloom draws on his own experience as a rabbi who watched the successful career he enjoyed turn into one he desperately wanted to forsake and how he was inspired to become an “athletic coach” for rabbis. This unique book details how symbolic exemplarhood is created, what its downside is, what power it offers, how it can be used effectively, how rabbis can deal with their inner lives, and what can be done to help rabbis stay “human” while maintaining their leadership.

The Rabbi As Symbolic Exemplar is equally effective as a complete text or as a source of stand-alone chapters on specific topics, including:

• special tensions of being a rabbi
  
• effects of symbolic exemplarhood on the rabbi’s family
  
• educating rabbis on their power
  
• training suggestions
  
• curing and healing
  
• and The Ten Commandments for rabbis

The Rabbi As Symbolic Exemplar is essential reading for rabbis, rabbinical students, congregants, Christian clergy, seminarians and anyone interested in what it is to be a clergy person and how they can support the work clergy do. The book educates both clergy and laity on the humanity of clergy.

Visit the author’s website at http://jackhbloom.com

	Foreword
	Acknowledgments
	Introduction
1	An Athletic Coach for Rabbis: The Path I Have Come?	1
2	Psychotherapy and Judaism Today: The Interface	89
3	Who Become Clergy?	107
	Symbolic Exemplarhood
4	The Special Tensions of Being "The Rabbi"	135
5	Symbolic Exemplarhood and the Rabbi's Family	139
6	The Inner Life of the Rabbi, or Who's at Home Anyway? And What's All the Commotion About?	153
7	The Silenced Modim - Modim d'Rabanan: Tending Our Wounded Selves	169
	Educating About Symbolic Examplarhood
8	By the Power Vested in Me: What Rabbis Need to Know and Do	175
9	The Seasons of a Rabbi: Dilemmas and Suggestions for Training	185
	Using the Power of Symbolic Exemplarhood
10	Witnessing, Naming, and Blessing	201
11	Curing and Healing	223
12	The Eulogy as a Tool in Grief Work	269
13	Ten Commandments for Rabbis	281
	The Rabbi as Symbol in the Public Arena
14	Journey to Understanding	285
15	A Refusenik Odyssey	293
	Index	323