In his second lecture on R. Meir Simcha of Dvinsk for Torah in Motion, history professor Marc B. Shapiro says: In 1906, Rav Meir Simcha was asked by the leaders of Jerusalem to assist Rav Shmuel Salant as rav of Jerusalem. He wanted to take the position but the people of Dvinsk wrote a strong letter to Jerusalem complaining.
That’s always a problem. In those days, they loved their great rabbis. Rabbi would usually move up and they’d complain that another city is taking their rabbi. The rabbinic contract was such that the rabbi could always get out of it and the rabbis always did get out of it. They were always looking to move up. Rabbinic salaries in Eastern Europe were poverty wages. Yeah, they gave you a house but little money. If you got a job in a bigger city, you moved up in the world.
Is it any different than today? I don’t recall any examples from America where the rabbi wants to go to a bigger city and the other town writes and says, don’t take our rabbi!
