Netflix’s new romantic comedy series Nobody Wants This highlights what it means to be a rabbi. The series focuses on Adam Brody’s Noah, a rabbi who begins dating an agnostic sex podcaster, Kristen Bell’s Joanne. Their religious and professional differences make their family and friends, among the other Nobody Wants This characters, skeptical of their relationship. Adam’s Jewish family especially struggles with the idea of him dating and potentially marrying a non-Jewish woman. Most of Joanne’s family and friends are also skeptical, with her dating misadventures often the focus of the podcast she co-hosts with her sister, Justine Lupe’s Morgan.

Bell and Brody share excellent chemistry that already has fans clamoring for a season 2 of Nobody Wants This. That effortless connection makes Joanne and Adam’s rom-com feel genuine, regardless of their spiritual and professional paths. Nevertheless, Noah’s job as a rabbi is a significant part of the story, and it sets up much of the show’s comedy and drama. Here is how Noah’s responsibilities as a rabbi, along with the internal and external expectations surrounding the position, complicate and raise the stakes for his relationship with Joanne.

A Rabbi Is A Spiritual Leader In Judaism

Rabbis Are Teachers And Scholars As Well

As seen in Nobody Wants This, Rabbis are spiritual leaders who guide their communities through the values and teachings of Judaism. They lead their congregations in prayer during religious services and deliver sermons, just as Noah is seen doing when Joanne comes to his temple. As teachers and scholars of Judaism, the rabbi is an expert who can share wisdom with congregants, as Noah does when speaking with a married couple a year after officiating their marriage. This is another responsibility that rabbis have. In addition to officiating at weddings, rabbis can officiate other ceremonies, such as funerals and circumcisions.

Rabbis often teach classes and help Jewish children prepare for the coming-of-age ceremony known as a Bar Mitzvah for boys and as a Bat Mitzvah for girls. During a Bar and Bat Mitzvah, the child reads from the Torah, Judaism’s holy text, in front of the congregation. The child also needs to have composed a d’var Torah to read aloud, which is their personal interpretation of the Torah portion they read. As with Noah’s congregation, there is usually more than one rabbi in order to meet the various needs of the congregation and to help run the temple.

How One Becomes A Rabbi & The Different Rules They Have To Follow

It’s All About Mitzvot

In order to become a rabbi, one must study Judaism and be trained for the position via a rabbinical seminary or rabbinical school. This leads to the rabbi becoming ordained. Unlike in other religions, where spiritual leaders are expected to be celibate, this expectation does not apply to rabbis. In fact, they are expected to marry and have children, and a Jewish husband and wife having consensual sex is considered a mitzvah, a good deed done for religious purposes. This also applies to having children.

Other examples of a mitzvah include visiting the elderly, giving money to charity, or helping someone who is sick. Another mitzvah that rabbis follow is keeping kosher. There are many rules when it comes to a kosher diet, and how strict one is can vary depending on whether an individual is Reform, Conservative, or Orthodox, but the basic principle involves only eating from animals who chew their cud and have split hooves. Since pigs do not chew their cud, they are considered non-kosher. This is why Noah asks for no bacon on his salad when he goes out to dinner with Joanne.

Noah chooses to eat at a restaurant that serves bacon and other pig products, but many individuals who keep kosher only eat at kosher restaurants. Milk and meat products also cannot be mixed together, meaning that cheeseburgers are non-kosher, as milk represents life and meat represents death, which cannot be mixed. Beyond keeping kosher, rabbis are expected to live by all 613 commandments, known as mitzvot, outlined in the Torah. These generally focus on being a good person that helps others, worships God, and keeps Judaism alive and well.

Why A Rabbi Dating A Non-Jewish Woman Is So Controversial In Nobody Wants This

It Could Affect Judaism’s Future

Noah dating Joanne is controversial because rabbis serve as an example of Jewish values, one of which is to keep the religion alive. According to Jewish law, a Jewish child must be born from a Jewish mother, meaning that if Joanne does not convert to Judaism, any children she and Noah have would not be considered Jewish. There is often a concern of a ripple effect, as articulated by Noah’s boss, Rabbi Cohen, that Noah dating a shiksa could contribute to a future where Judaism ceases to exist.

There is also the matter of Joanne being an outsider in a close-knit community, along with the expectations from Noah’s parents and much of his congregation that he marry a Jewish woman. Some, like Noah’s brother, Sasha (Timothy Simons), are not bothered by Joanne, while others, including Sasha’s wife and Noah’s sister-in-law, Esther (Jackie Tohn) are deeply troubled by her. This is reflective of how opinions on interfaith marriages can vary in reality as well. In these ways, Nobody Wants This overall does an effective job of putting Noah being a rabbi at the forefront of the story.