The Jewish Theological Seminary

I went to an information session last night from the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) to hear about the rabbinical school. I’ve never really said this publicly before, it’s always been an interest of mine to become a Rabbi. I don’t know if I’d want to be a full time pulpit Rabbi, but there are other things that a Rabbi can do; only about half the graduates from JTS go on to take full time pulpit positions.

People are eventually going to realize that this whole computer industry is really just a fad, and I need to plan for the day when people realize that the abacus is really a much better tool. OK, maybe not. But the truth is, as much as I enjoy the computer industry, especially human factors, it just doesn’t engage me the same way that studying a page of Talmud does.

Would I ‘retire’ from the high tech field and work full time as a Rabbi? Would I stay in the tech field and do the Rabbi work part time? I don’t know. But I could see that 10 years from now I might want to think about making a career change to something more fulfilling. That would make me a Rabbi by 45 (it’s a 5 year program), and could work the rest of my career in that field.

The session really rekindled my latent interest in the Rabbinate. This will certainly be something to think about.