In consequence, Moses transferred all priestly duties to the Levites, who hailed from his own tribe, because they stood by him loyally in the hour of mass defection. But even they still embodied the principle of religious leadership by inheritance rather than ability. Not till the rabbinic era in the wake of the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E. did Judaism approximate a democratic ethos which opened the ranks of leadership to all men of learning and piety irrespective of birth. It was a momentous step forward that held firm in the Middle Ages to be completed in our own day by the equally courageous admission of qualified women into the rabbinate. I am confident that the latter expansion of the rabbinate will strengthen Judaism as much as the former.
True progress comes in stages.
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