Definition of "rabbinate" [rabbinate]

• The office or function of a rabbi. (noun)
• Rabbis considered as a group. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "American Jews are upset that the conversion bill making its way through the Knesset will, for the first time, give sole control over conversions to Israel's chief rabbinate, which is dominated by Orthodox Jews."
• "The problems of balancing career and home life are particularly acute in a calling such as the rabbinate, which is still defined and experienced as much as a personal commitment as it is a professional commitment."
• "For Reform Judaism, at least in its American and British forms, the rabbinate is a job, not a calling."