94 Selected Reform Responsa
entitled to damages on moral and ethical grounds and should pursue this course of action. The physician may well be willing to assume this obligation in keeping with tradition.
Suing the Rabbi
Questions and Reform Jewish Answers(New York, 1992),#235
: A rabbi who does a considerable amount of counseling has asked whether it is necessary to purchase malpractice
insurance. What, according to tradition, is the range of liability? (Walter Rosenthal , Trenton New Jersey )
ANSWER: We are going to look at this matter with the under standing that the rabbi in question is not a licensed therapist and so would do counseling as part of ordinary congregation responsibility and not in the special capacity of a therapist. Such cases would be akin to the responsibility of a physician which has been discussed previously(W. Jacob, Contemporary Americ! Reform Responsa# 75).
This entire area has been treated thoroughly in America ! secular legal literature; it is the general desire of the courts to remain out of this area, as it is very difficult for them to establish the parameters of training and appropriate religious conduct for so many religious groups and sects(Funston,“Made out of Whole Cloth—A Constitutional Analysis of the Clergy Malpra® tice Concept,” Georgia Western Law Review, Vol 10, pp. 507ff McMenamin The Jurist, Vol 45, pp. 275ff etc).
We are not concerned with the judicial function of the rabt! and possible errors which might take place in the exercise of tha! function(Shulhan Arukh Hoshen Mishpat 25 and commentaries), but rather with the general area of responsibility through counseling