Religion: Neglected Pulpit

“The concept is now popular that the rabbi’s central duty is to be a personal guide and counselor to the troubled individuals of the congregation,” writes Rabbi Solomon Freehof in the recently published Israel Bettan Memorial Volume, a collection of essays dedicated to a former professor of Hebrew Union College. But this new interest in solving personal problems, says Dr. Freehof, a leader of U.S. Reform Judaism, costs rabbis time that they might spend better in preaching.

“Already there is evidence that the problems of the world as a total are beginning to overshadow the personal problems of the individual. People are now asking: What is the future of human civilization? What is the meaning of God’s presence in a world such as this?” With this rediscovery of man’s larger problems, Dr. Freehof argues, “personal guidance can no longer remain the overwhelming concern of the minister. Public influence again becomes his duty. As that is increasingly realized, the pulpit as an instrument of public influence will be revalued once more.”