"EQ" is "Emotional Quotient" -- also known as Emotional Intelligence -- something that did not exist as a psychological category 60 years ago when I was born. Back then it was IQ that was all-important. Mine is quite high (145 if you discount the 80 in coding, otherwise 130) so I got tracked into the academic route and everyone thought I should become a rabbi. Which I eventually did -- but the role of rabbi in America is no longer that of the intellectual and his books in a little study somewhere. Scholasticism is dead. Instead, the rabbi is supposed to be a social director for mega-congregations of literally thousands of families. Without EQ, the 21st-century rabbi is a total failure.

Of course, nobody had heard of Aspberger's back when I began my rabbinical studies in the 1970s. So I was simply seen as a total misfit with a "low EQ." After my first book was published in 1992 (yes, in the real world I am a published author) I went on the speaking circuit and, well, it was a disaster. People read my words and had their own idea of me as some sort of gushy new-age guru because I wrote about reincarnation (which, BTW, is part of Hasidic teachings, not "new age" at all.) When they learned that the rabbi whose book they loved was this autistic little nerd with poor eye contact, they were so disappointed... and never asked me back. I was a one-shot gig everywhere. (And if this story gives away who I am, so be it. I'm getting close to "coming out" anyway. Maybe even write my memoirs of being the "Holocaust reincarnation rabbi." Now that REALLY gave it away, yes? )

I never had a real congregation and today I do not actually support myself as a rabbi, although I do have a volunteer ministry at the local federal prison (where I am Volunteer of the Year this year -- a real surprise, I assure you.)

Maybe I'm more traditional anyway -- in the old days, rabbis also had secular jobs, so much so, that the Talmud says not to make the Torah "a spade to dig with" (which means don't commercialize it.) I am certainly more free without a Board of Directors voting on my every move. Being weird has set me free!

EQ is such a far cry from the reclusive rabbis -- and for that matter, scientists -- we read about in the old stories. And I find myself wondering, as this EQ requirement takes hold more and more in the corporate world -- I wonder, how many Einsteins and Edisons would never make it into a lab today? I mean, Edison has to have been the most hyper-focused man on earth when it came to light bulbs. Electricity was his Special Interest -- yes indeed! He literally tried 1000 ways that failed and never gave up. What EQ-NT person could do that? Today Edison would be considered obsessive or weird or disturbed... and we would all still be using candles.

Rabbi or minister, in a contemporary setting, definately seem to necessitate masterful people skills. Monks used to be the learned elite back in the days of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, etc, but nowadays those roles are relegated to the scientific community rather than the church (and rightfully so). I completely agree with you that American culture is way too hard on people with eccentricities. Benjamin Franklin was OCD and look what he did for the world.

Thanks for the insight, AtomicPunk. Recluses were the learned elite much later than that in the Jewish community -- right up until the Holocaust killed off all the gentle nonviolent European Jewish scholars and the secular/Israeli POV became dominant. I was born right at the cusp of this change -- in 1947 -- when the scholarly reclusive rabbi was still an honored image, but the world was moving toward the modern model. Yet I am basically a recluse and happy as such. I now live with my wife (yes, I'm a married Aspie -- going on 28 years. So the psychologists who say that can't happen are wrong!) People ask how I can live "alone" away from a Jewish community and I reply that I was socially isolated even when I lived in the city. It's not as if people were just dying to have me come be the life of the party (sarcasm.) At least here I have my animals & nature, a loving mate, a home I can afford, an occupation as a freelance writer -- and I am basically happy. Besides, I'm not out of contact with other Jews. I have the Internet.