OK, sorry I got my hackles up.
I can’t speak for every branch and sect of Judaism, but I know the Reform movement has extremely rigorous standards for ordinations as a rabbi or cantor. My sister has two bachelor’s degrees and two masters’, and she’s “just” an educator!
The guy is definitely a fake rabbi. Did it seem to you that I said otherwise? 
Have you checked out any of the links provided?
This is a bigger question than you probably realize. I’m actually going through the process of hiring a Rabbi for my shul right now and… There are rules. The problem is, that depending on the movement of Judaism you belong to (not sect, it’s all jewish) the rules are different and some movements don’t recognize any others as legitimate (see many ultra orthodox movements).
The question of “who is a jew” is a fundamental one because Judaism is not a religion of faith it’s a religion of belonging. You can be a perfectly good jew without faith as long as you follow the law, so Jews become very preoccupied (sometimes) with who is and who isn’t a jew. This is why Netanyahu dismissing American Jews as largely illegitimate recently caused outrage.
Typically you need to have gone to seminary to become a rabbi and you get a masters in Rabbinic Studies, at least for my movement it’s a 5 year degree which requires a year of study in Israel and an externship in a synagogue or Chaplancy. Other movements have other requirements. But there are a ton of rules within each movement.
You don’t just get to say “hey I’m a Rabbi.” Other Rabbis generally have to have given you the ok after sufficient training. Anyone else is still considered a layman regardless of knowledge. Often many synagogues have a number of very learned lay leaders who are nonetheless not Rabbis.
Yeah, I’m betting that you’re right about that.
It was very short notice, did you expect Pence to just pull a rabbi out of his hat?
You’ve been waiting all thread to tee that one up, haven’t you?
Thank you, NAF1138, that pretty much answered all my questions. Judaism is more organized than Christianity.
I think it’s more that there are far more cultural Christians than Jews, so there are more visible fly-by-night “Christian” operations.
And that Judaism has less branches than Christianity, and no teeny-weeny little offshoots. All the Christian churches which are bigger than a lemonade stand require several years’ training before you can get hired as a pastor or assigned a parish.
Opinions may vary as to whether or not they qualify as sects, offshoots, or legitimate branches, but there are real versions of Judaism such as Sadducees and Karaites that do not recognize the authority of Rabbis. (I guess that goes double for fake rabbis.)
Wasn’t actually planning on it. Just responding to Snowboarder Bo that, no, I’m not prepared for his scenario, and don’t think I can be.
Cameras can be useful to shame people. Problem is is that there are those who cannot be shamed.
By camera skills, I assume you mean knowing how to properly hold a camera to create a horizontal picture, rather than a vertical?
I did mean in general, not just for that particular event.
Yep, next week is a pivotal moment. Let’s be a “mob” and vote!
No, that would not be the intent of buying a gun. I am just saying that I would not buy a gun unless I actually felt that there was a good chance that I would have to use it.
For instance, I have a first aid kit in my car (and in my house, my place of business, and with my camping gear). I got it because I thought I would need it often. It hasn’t come in as useful as I thought it would, but it has been very useful on 2 occasions.
We’ve tried that. There really needs to be some sort of two way communication on that however. If I express a fear that there will be a mass shooting at a school, then I am a snowflake. If a black person expresses a fear that he may be mistreated or even killed by law enforcement, he is over reacting, and it’s just the media’s fault.
But they are afraid of nebulous concepts that just don’t happen. They are afraid of the violence that immigration brings, when immigrants are less violent. They are afraid of the cost that immigration brings, when it is a net positive for the economy.
They are afraid of shadows, and have come to the conclusion that since shadows are formed by light, turning off the lights will assuage their fears.
The only thing that scares them more than things that they don’t understand is learning about the things that they do not understand.
I think that comes to economics. There is no reason why you couldn’t have a massive megachurch without any training or affiliations, but it is unlikely. If you want to get a loan from a bank, then the bank is going to want some backing. Being a part of a larger church hierarchy is useful for that.
You’ve got a few years on me, IIRC, so I’m not saying it wasn’t so at some time. But the whole Jews for Jesus/messianic Jews/completed Jews thing has been around for essentially the entire time since I found the Lord 48 years ago, and I’ve never seen that side of it.
Yeah. And I would say those are absolutely a different sect of Judaism. Referring to reform/conservative/orthadox etc as different sects isn’t really accurate. It’s more like a different interpretation of the same sect. It’s all rabbinic Judaism. Typically Rabbinic Ashkenazi Judaism. They are just different movements within that sect. Which is why, in America, Judaism feels a lot more unified tha than Christianity.
All of this is super off topic, but interesting I think.
And just as the cherry on top, the Messianic Jew bogus rabbi believes the 11 Jews killed on Saturday will spend eternity in Hell. Because of course he does.
If the point was to show solidarity with the Jewish community in the wake of Saturday’s massacre, I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say they coulda done a wee bit better job of it. Like by disappearing from public view for a few weeks.
A good start towards a life of meditation and repentance.
Yes, as you and JohnT point out, Quartz has failed to come up with an actual “good guy with a gun” example.
I’m sure we’re all willing to wait for Quartz to manage to do that. (Patience is a virtue!)
Heh: well that would certainly help!
Cameras can be used to identify criminals engaging in criminal activity in public. Shaun King tracked down these 2 white supremacist assaulters for example. News article.
I was wondering whether higher tech video cameras and microphones could help identify a wider range of potential white nationalist defendants, ones who use or advocate violence. I had in mind racist set pieces like Charlottesville. If it’s just an incident you come across, that doesn’t apply.
Bogus rabbi was defrocked by [del]Baptist Christian front group[/del] the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations in 2003, after they found him guilty of libel. Apparently bogus rabbi was shocked to learn that one of his fellow fake rabbis didn’t think that Genesis 1-11 was necessarily based on real historical events. Jews assail 'Christian rabbi' who appeared with Pence, and so does his own movement
Twitter: [INDENT] STAGE 1: Rabbi not actually Jewish
STAGE 2: Rabbi not actually a rabbi
STAGE 3: Rabbi actually Sacha Baron Cohen [/INDENT] https://twitter.com/Yair_Rosenberg/status/1057467689411792896
… someone should tell you that while economics in the widest sense of the word has a lot to do with Church structures, banks are a lot more recent than seminaries…