ABSTRACT
People living in secular Western countries often cherish a prejudice against great religions and their authorities. This goes hand in hand with their not-too-great knowledge of the functions of individual religious representatives. Although most secularized Europeans have at least some basic knowledge of religious titles and the hierarchy of the Catholic Church headed by the pope, they often view other religions through the prism of what they know best. However, the roles of religious authorities in Judaism are considerably different and also hardly comparable to the roles of religious authorities in Catholicism in many aspects. For example, in some of its interpretations, Judaism does not recognize a hierarchy in the sense of how the Catholic Church understands it, and thus, in Judaism, there is usually no hierarchical ranking of rabbis according to their religious titles.
