A Single Rabbanit?
As previously discussed; everyone agrees that Rabbis are male, right? And so the great debate arose amongst liberal jewry on what to call the anomaly of a female rabbi in hebrew. I once heard someone referred to as "Reb Jill." The conservative movement insisted that a woman rabbi was a rav. As in "הרב תעביר דרשה". The Liberal Orthodox came up with a number of obscure phrases, such as "congregational intern," and then "Maharat (an acronym of something for other)." But it seems the Reform movement won out in the end with their most grammatically correct "Rabbah." Of course they beat out the bunch because they had the following Biblical prooftext supporting them: "רבות בנות עשו חיל, והטלית על כולנה". But all these women candidates for female religious leadership had one thing in common. They all agree that they are not Rabbaniyot. And that's too bad. Traditionally, the Rabbanit is the Hebrew word for the Rabbi