IT WAS A TALMUD CLASS that convinced Heather Altman to become a rabbi instead of a doctor. Back in 1990, she was pre-med at Emory University, signed up for a class in the Jewish Studies department, and realized that she wanted to do congregational work. After a year at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, a yeshivah in Israel, she enrolled at the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1995. After her ordination in 2000, she got a job as an assistant rabbi at Anshe Emet, a large Conservative shul in the heart of Chicago. “I liked the idea of all the ages and all the stages, and it was a good match in most ways,” she says. As most rabbis do, Altman led services, taught classes, and was part of a larger clergy team. It was meaningful work, but aspects of it were tedious, and the lifestyle took a toll. Altman was single when she started out, but she saw right away that the life of a congre- gational rabbi “is built on, and still modelled on, the rabbi having a wife … The synagogue takes up everything, and I didn’t have someone supporting me at home. I didn’t have Shabbat really. As a rabbi, you’re working on Shabbat, and to have a Shabbat meal was not a given for me because I didn’t have anyone at home to do that. So I was doing two or three different services some Friday nights, and not having a sacred moment for myself.” Her contract had funds set aside for professional development, as many clerical contracts do. Instead of going to a rabbinical conference, she went to a week-long Kabbal- ah Yoga and Jewish meditation retreat. That planted a seed in her mind. Five years later, Altman decided to leave the pulpit to teach Torah Yoga and Tfilah Yoga, and to be a spiri- tual director for individuals looking for their own Jewish path. TASK RABBI ILLUSTRATION BY NAZARIO GRAZIANO BY AVI FINEGOLD THE RABBINATE IS EVOLVING FASTER THAN AT ANY POINT IN HISTORY. A KEY SHIFT: THE RISE OF THE FREELANCE RABBI.
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