These types of 'documentaries' tend to have their own destination already mapped out before they even begin. They want to show a certain side, a certain view. The way it looked to me is that they had no idea who a Jewish spiritual leader would be and just went for something that they could recognize - an elected office. In other words, they were looking for organized religion. I'm not surprised in the least that they did not explain what the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel is, how its an elected office, that there is another Chief Rabbi for the Sephardi community in Israel and that the title is used in over a dozen countries.
As for any aggressive stance on fighting for Judaism, it is definitely a factor of his location. We're talking about a country smaller than most American states. A country that can be driven across in an hour or so. A country who's neighbors have been either at hot war, cold peace, or something in the middle since its creation. Physical defense of Judaism in Israel means physically defending the country. This is not missionary work or some sort of Jihad. It's defend or die. (I probably sound as aggressive as he does with the above.) Of course I have not seen the documentary so I can't say if his stance is more or less aggressive than others, but I doubt its abnormal. One thing that I did note is that all of the websites I've seen all show Rabbi Metzger's name without his proper title of Rabbi. He should have been "Rabbi Yona Metzger, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel". I see other religious leaders on the same page (all taken from the same source it seems) with their titles. But that's a nitpick. On Dec 26, 2007 12:38 AM, Sean Corfield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Dec 25, 2007 2:57 PM, Michael Dinowitz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > The chief Rabbi is only the chief Rabbi of Israel. It's a political > > position, not a position that implies he's the chief of Rabayim or > anything > > of the sort. We don't have anything like that. Orthodox Judaism has no > > central 'chief' like the Pope, Dali Lama or the sort. Reform Judaism has > a > > central body, but they're a much newer group. > > Good to know. He didn't make that clear (I wonder why not? :) > > He was ex-military and I had to wonder whether his somewhat aggressive > stance on fighting for Judaism was borne out of his service years or > was a more general sentiment (I was hoping the former). > -- > Sean A Corfield -- (904) 302-SEAN > An Architect's View -- http://corfield.org/ > > "If you're not annoying somebody, you're not really alive." > -- Margaret Atwood > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:249058 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
