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Lots of professions, one job.

* I majored in vocal music performance in college. Since deciding to embrace Jewish observance, I've learned that a Jewish woman should not sing before men because a Jewish man is not supposed to listen to a woman sing and watch her at the same time, and I'd have no way of knowing which men in the audience were or weren't Jewish other than singing primarily for Nazi groups. razz Frankly you cannot make a decent living singing for restricted (such as all-female, or no-Jewish-males) audiences. I still profess to be a singer, but now my singing is at home. Singing is no longer my career.

* Right now I'm spending most days in the pottery studio. I'm giving myself a self-led course of study in ceramics production, sort of like taking on schooling or apprenticeship but without the part where you have a teacher. I take it seriously, and sometimes I do get paid for my creations, so one could argue that this is my profession. It doesn't pay bills, but it's begun to pay for itself, at least -- if I sell 3 sets of feastware in a 2-month period, it pays for my studio time; if I sell 3 more, it pays for all the clay I use during that time.

* I've had lots of jobs, but none of them were my profession. They were just ways to pay the bills. Right now, my real 'job' doesn't pay bills at all, but it does have the effect of making my house a home. I'm a homemaker. Without me doing this job, consistently, every day, no matter how I feel, my home would become a messy and uninviting dump. When I do the job, my home is a place I'm happy to be, my bashert is happy to be, and people are happy to come and visit. So that's my job.

You're crazy lol

Thats a good choice of profession heart

The thing is, rabbis get paid very little, because their income comes from a congregation's good will contributions to the synagogue -- which often gives the rabbi a percentage of their donations, rather than a set figure. But rabbis (like all observant Jews) still have to live within walking distance of the synagogue, which often means paying a premium price for that location. As a consequence, unless they come from family money or their wife's got a great income, they often live at subsistence-level in a house they really shouldn't have to try to afford.

Rabbis get little respect, in many communities. The more rabbis a community has, the more they see them as necessary (or there wouldn't be so many there, you see?), but the less each individual rabbi matters. Yet in communities that only have one rabbi, it's because they don't see a need for more, which means they're not giving great respect to the one that they do have.

Outside the Jewish community, anything a rabbi does is suspect, because he's a visible member of a not-generally-respected minority group. If he is the least bit impatient after a long day of annoyances, "Jews sure are irritable." So he's got to be in a constant state of tense awareness of his actions and how they could impact him, his family, his entire People.

He's got to spend all his time studying, supervising kosher butchers, acting as certification officers for kosher kitchens/facilities, answering halachic questions -- the man never gets a moment to himself. Especially if he cares about talking to his wife and giving attention to his scads and scads of children.

In short -- and you have to picture a grandmother giving advice to her daughter about the daughter's young son -- "Sweetie, I'll give you it's a mitzvah... but it's no job for a Jewish boy!"

Goodness knows -- and I realize that those candles that come in boxes of 100 are useful, convenient, and cheap, but MAN are they boring. Though I've no business complaining, as I don't use candles anyway. I prefer oil with a wick in it.

HEy Divash, it's been FOREVER since I've been on this board, but I couldn't help but notice your first bullet... aI am a vocal music ed major in college! We should talk some time.

In relevance to this thread, I plan to become a cantor. It's been my aspiration since I was 6. Haha. Hello Guildies, I am an ancient member, how are you?!

POCKY! Good to see you back again. smile Good luck in your ambitions. Maintain the thread of Jewish liturgical music, our traditions. Be strong, be strong, and we will strengthen one another.

Nominally, but everyone's so well behaved and respectful that the guild is starting to run itself, which is a good thing. I was actually thinking of creating a guild mule to 'own' the guild, so that if/when Cindy comes back or I need to pass it to someone else, there won't be as much of a bookkeeping nightmare.