Here's an excerpt from my blog entry in response to Jen's provocative piece:
Liberal Jews often assume that I am a rabbi. Not just because I am invested and literate in the way Jen describes (above) but because I teach Torah and facilitate lifecycle rituals such as weddings, funerals, and baby namings but I'm not a rabbi. "Then why not become a rabbi?" they ask. The assumption being that I must want to be a rabbi. I don't, for many reasons, but mostly because I'm only interested in specific parts of the rabbinic portfolio--the teaching and the rituals--and I can do all that (and more) as an educated lay person. Unfortunately, as Jen points out, the "little problem" is that the way most liberal communities work the options are limited, sometimes by misperception and sometimes by design: you either are a rabbi or you shouldn't be impersonating one.
The important question is not "Why not become a rabbi?" It's "Why do you think I need to be one?" Read the rest at: blog.wideanglejudaism.org
Here's an excerpt from my blog entry in response to Jen's provocative piece:
Liberal Jews often assume that I am a rabbi. Not just because I am invested and literate in the way Jen describes (above) but because I teach Torah and facilitate lifecycle rituals such as weddings, funerals, and baby namings but I'm not a rabbi. "Then why not become a rabbi?" they ask. The assumption being that I must want to be a rabbi. I don't, for many reasons, but mostly because I'm only interested in specific parts of the rabbinic portfolio--the teaching and the rituals--and I can do all that (and more) as an educated lay person. Unfortunately, as Jen points out, the "little problem" is that the way most liberal communities work the options are limited, sometimes by misperception and sometimes by design: you either are a rabbi or you shouldn't be impersonating one.
The important question is not "Why not become a rabbi?" It's "Why do you think I need to be one?" Read the rest at: blog.wideanglejudaism.org