rebbe

Borrowed from Yiddish רבי (rebe). Doublet of rabbi.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛbi/, /ˈɹɛbə/
• Rhymes: -ɛbi, -ɛbə

rebbe (plural rebbes)

1. (Judaism) The spiritual leader of a Hasidic Jewish community.

   Synonym: admor

   • 2004 June 27, Geoffrey Wheatcroft, “The Book of Isaiah”, in The New York Times‎^[1], archived from the original on 16 June 2022:

     Born in Riga in 1909 into a vast cousinage that included the Lubavitcher rebbes, Isaiah Mendelevich Berlin was taken to Petrograd as a small boy, and then to London in 1921 when the Bolsheviks allowed his prosperous (and fortunate) parents to leave.

   • 2022, Abie Rotenberg, “Al Hatzadikim”, in Journeys, Vol. 5‎^[2]:

     It was to be the first Pesach, after years devoid of light
     When the Rebbe of Skulene stood with his son
     And they announced, There will Matzos! for the Seder Night
     But enough to only give each person one

   • 2024 January 9, Eliza Shapiro and Katherine Rosman, “Secret Synagogue Tunnel Sets Off Altercation That Leads to 9 Arrests”, in The New York Times‎^[3], archived from the original on 19 January 2024:

     But two men who said they spoke with some of those who broke through the synagogue wall said the motive was to hasten an expansion of 770 — a move that they say the Lubavitcher movement’s leader, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known as the rebbe, called for more than three decades ago.

2. (Judaism) A teacher of Torah, especially in a primary school.
   • 1993, Meir Birnbaum with Yonasan Rosenblum, Lieutenant Birnbaum: A Soldier’s Story, page 230:

     Since their was no kollel that Shlomo could enter immediately, he would stay in the house and learn all day. When I came home at night, he would be my own private rebbe-chavrusa.

   • 2006, Doniel Frank, editor, Rav Yaakov Weinberg talks about chinuch, page 100:

     The first-grade teacher […] has to be able to project a motherly warmth while at the same time maintain the image of a rebbe.

   • 2021, “Thank You Rebbi”, Miriam Israeli (lyrics)‎^[4]:

     Now we were no angels, but rebbi stayed on; he saw something we couldn’t see.
     Year after year at the front of the class, building the world that would be.

• rebbe card

• rabbi
• reb
• rebbetzin

• berbe, ebber

Borrowed from Yiddish רבי (rebe).

• IPA^(key): /ˈrɛ.bə/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: reb‧be
• Rhymes: -ɛbə

rebbe m (plural rebbes, no diminutive)

1. an Ashkenazi rabbi, in particular a Chasidic one; rebbe

• rabbi
• rabbijn

From Middle Dutch ribbe, from Old Dutch *ribba, from Proto-Germanic *ribjō.

• Rhymes: -æːbə
• IPA^(key): /ræːbə/

rebbe m

1. rib