Editing Ordination (section)

==Judaism==
{{See also|Rabbi #Ordination| List of rabbinical schools}}
The ordination of a [[rabbi]] within [[Judaism]] is referred to as ''[[semikhah]]'' ({{langx|he|סמיכה}}, 'leaning' or 'laying [of the hands]'; or ''semicha lerabanim'' {{lang|he|סמיכה לרבנות}}, 'rabbinical ordination'). The term is derived from the Hebrew verb for "to lean [up]on" ({{lang|he|לִסְמוֹך}}, ''lismôq'') in the sense that prospective rabbis are "to be authorized" as Jewish religious leaders.

While the Hebrew word ''semikhah'' is rendered as "ordination" in English, a rabbi is not [[Priest (Judaism)|a priest]] ''per se''. Rather, ordained rabbis, at least until the 20th century (when the role of rabbis expanded to included pastoral duties) primarily function as Jewish communities' [[Posek|decisors]] of [[Halakha]] (Jewish law) and [[Torah]] teachers and [[Torah study|scholars]].<ref name="y748">{{cite web | last=Ostroff | first=David | title=Rabbi | website=sources | date=4 April 2024 | url=https://www.sourcesjournal.org/articles/rabbi | access-date=2 February 2025}}</ref> For many Jewish religious purposes, a rabbi's presence is unnecessary. For example, at prayer, a ''[[minyan]]'' (quorum) of ten laypeople is both necessary and sufficient for the recital of ''[[Kaddish]]''—thus the saying "nine rabbis do not constitute a minyan, but ten cobblers can".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.templewb.org/Chronicle/Volume09_Issue01.pdf|title=Temple Israel Chronicle, January 2009, p3|website=templewb.org|access-date=9 May 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304101030/http://www.templewb.org/Chronicle/Volume09_Issue01.pdf|archive-date=4 March 2016}}</ref>

Recently, in some [[Jewish religious movements]], ''semikhah'' or ''semicha lehazzanut'' may refer to the ordination of a ''[[hazzan]]'' (cantor); some use the term "investiture" to describe the conferral of cantorial authority rather than ordination.