Many factors play a role in the struggle between laity and rabbinate. Each Jewish civilization has worked out its own scheme for dealing with the ongoing struggle over power and rights. The positions have never been stationary, always fluid and always changing. It is to the credit of the rabbinate that it has been able to change with the times and adjust to the different settings and thus able to maintain the influence of tradition.
As one looks over the struggle through the centuries, one can come to two conclusions:
1. It is clear that the rabbinate has been resilient and able to incorporate within its framework whole areas which were not originally intended.
2. It grew, after the Babylonian Diaspora, into a leadership which often represented the Jewish community within the broader general community, and in the last two centuries has been expanded far beyond those horizons both within and outside the Jewish community. Thus, as an institution, it has proven to be remarkably adaptive.
The continuing struggle between rabbis and laity have kept the Jewish communities somewhat democratic. The tendency for haughty dominance existed on both sides but neither side was ever able to take this too far without considerable opposition from the rest of the community and from the countervailing force. The very rivalry which sometimes caused difficulties was also a source of enormous strength for the community. As rabbis were constantly recruited from the general community, this meant that no rabbinic leader could wander too far afield from the interests of that community.
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