What is a Rabbi? Rather, who is a Rabbi?
The word Rabbi, in Hebrew, comes from the word 'great'.
A Rabbi is a spiritual mentor, a teacher.
A Rabbi is a person who had profoundly and extensively studied Torah, a person who had acquired a lot of knowledge in Jewish tradition, rituals and philosophy. It takes a long time before someone could qualify as a Rabbi.
Yet, each and every Jew must 'acquire' a Rabbi for himself/herself.
When one has a coach to guide him, a mentor to follow, one achieves two important achievements:
1. Accepting the fact that there is someone greater than me. A sense of modesty.
2. Having someone to consult with, debate and learn from.
In that sense, each and every person could become a Rabbi by being someone else's mentor and coach. Someone else who knows a little less, looks up to that person and seeks guidance.
By coaching and mentoring someone who has less knowledge in Judaism, one becomes the other person's 'Rabbi'.
This concept presents enormous responsibility to research and study and to pass it on to other people.
In Judaism, studying Torah is open to all. Anybody can become a Rabbi.