Lubavitch

Lubavitch as is well known is one of the most active and far reaching movements in Jewry. It is spread literally across the entire planet where there is any human habitation. Its primary activity focuses on getting non- religious Jews to embrace observant Judaism. And it has been very successful in doing so for over 50 years. This is due primarily to the leadership of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, who passed away several years ago. The Rebbe was a very charismatic leader who inspired tens of thousands of Jews to follow his directives and thus created an empire that spans the globe in pursuit of getting fellow Jews to become observant of Torah Law.

My first encounter with Lubavitch was when I was an elementary school student. I believed them to be just another in the wide array in the smorgasbord of religious Jews that hardly looked different (at elementary school age) than the rest of us. I later learned of their Kiruv work and was most impressed at their vast worldwide network. It was axiomatic to me that Lubavitch was it the forefront of recovering lost souls to Judaism and quite successful at it. Needless to say I was greatly impressed. After all, nobody else was doing it, at least not on such a grand scale. I was a big fan and praised them at every opportunity.

Somewhere near the end of my high-school education, I began to notice something very peculiar things about Lubavitchers. When they were Mekarev, they did so in a way that almost precluded any potential Baal Teshuva from becoming anything other than a Lubavitcher Chasid. The first thing they did in Kiruv was to convince the potential Baal Teshuva that only through Lubavitch and the Rebbe could one be the ultimate practicing Torah Jew. Customs unique only to Lubavitch such as single girls lighting Shabbos candles, were taught as essential to Judaism right along with Shabbos and Kashrus. This approach had a dual effect. First it made you a Lubavitcher before it made you religious and second, it made you extremely loyal to Lubavitch.

Lubavitch is also very insular. Either you are one of the group or you are out in the cold. You either get the entire support network that Lubavitch has to offer, including Shiddach (matchmaking) services through its vast networking resources for yourself and eventually your children... or you are left to fend for yourself.

They never seem to intermingle with other mainstream Orthodox Jews whenever they can help it. They have their own schools and other social organizations and socialize almost entirely amongst themselves. Even though they obviously recognize the rest of the Torah world as legitimate, it is considered the outside world to them. If one of them sends their children to another day school and not a Cheder Lubavitch, they just about lose their credentials as Lubavitchers.

How do I know any of this? Well, some of it is rather overt in their behavior. The rest I know anecdotally from my experiences with friends and relatives who have been involved (and in some cases still are) with Lubavitch to one extent or another.

My admiration for what Lubavitch has been severely reduced by what I have come to learn over the years. Now, when ever I see Lubavitch doing Kiruv work I see the making of a Lubavitcher Chasid instead of making someone an observant Jew. And it is the Baalei Teshuva within Lubavitch that are the most susceptible to some of the more radical Meshichist beliefs i.e., that in some way shape or form the Lubavticher Rebbe, though deceased over ten years ago, is the Moshiach.

This phenomenon began when near the end of his life the Lubavitcher Rebbe started more aggressively promoting the concept of Moshiach’s imminent arrival. He boldly stated that the time has now arrived for the Messiah’s arrival and never missed an occasion to promote this idea. His Chasidim started interpreting many of the Rebbe’s statements and deeds as proofs that the Rebbe himself was Moshiach. While he denied it, he never discouraged his followers from proclaiming it at every opportunity with signs posters and slogans. His followers took his denial as a kind of humility and used quotes from his numerous speeches, discourses, and writings that indeed he did believe himself to be the Messiah and was only waiting for the right moment to reveal it to the world.

After his death, instead of resigning themselves to the reality that he wasn’t Moshiach after all, they re-interpreted Jewish theology and redefined the Messiah akin to the Christological theology as one who may indeed die with his messianic mission unfulfilled only to return resurrected in a second coming to complete his mission to bring the messianic age upon the world.

The mainstream belief is that he died but will be resurrected at Techias Hamesim to become Moshiach and lead us out of Galus. This, in and of itself, may not be heresy but is enough to discourage any knowledgeable Torah oriented Jew not indoctrinated by Lubavitch, away from the movement... and consider Lubavitch as distancing themselves away from mainstream Judaism. The theology they use to maintain belief in the Rebbe’s Messianism is after all one of the essential elements of Christianity, a theology that we have been disputing since the advent of that religion.

There are those within the movement that go a step further and believe that the Rebbe is not dead at all and is “hiding” until that moment when he will reveal himself as Moshiach. This is a bizarre belief yet there are many mainstream Lubavitchers who believe it! I don’t know the numbers involved in this particular belief but I do know that at the very least, they are tolerated and accepted as Jews and Lubavitchers in good standing by their mainstream. The most bizarre and frightening among the beliefs by some Lubavitchers is the claim that the Rebbe is G-d. I have actually seen this in print distributed by some their spin-off organizations. This is most certainly apikorsus (heresy) or even Avodah Zara in its most literal sense, and a virtual copy of Christianity!

Most recently there has developed amongst Lubavitch a division in how to handle Messianist views. On the one hand there is a significant number of Lubavitchers with ample funding who are promoting the belief that the Rebbe is Moshiach as publicly as possible, most notably in Israel. On the other hand much of mainstream Lubavitch is trying to dissociate themselves from such public declarations and correctly view them as harmful to their goals. This has led to some very public fights over the issue and has caused much grief amongst their leadership. They are currently involved in a struggle for the hearts and minds of their members. But the truth of the matter is that, even though they identify themselves as either Meshichsist or anti Meshichists, both sides believe in a version of The Rebbe’s Messiahship. It is just a question of degree. The least Messianist among them still believes in at least the possibility that the Rebbe will be resurrected as the Messiah. How the numbers break down as to who believes what and to what degree... is hard to determine but there is no question about the basic theology nor is their any question as to a major divide between those who want to “proclaim it from the hilltops” and those who do not and just keep it as a matter of private faith.

What Lubavitch needs to do to regain its respectability is more than just eliminate the foolishness about the Rebbe being Moshiach in any of its interpretations, although that would be a good start. They need to shed the bonds of it’s cult like existence and start participating with the rest of Klal Israel. They need to integrate with the rest of in all areas of Judaic life especially educational institutions like, elementary schools, high schools, girl’s schools and Yeshivas. They need to alter their approach to Kiruv and take a page from NCSY where the goal is to integrate you into the mainstream of all of Klal Israel and not just a singular branch of it.

It would be a noble goal for Klal Yisroel to eradicate this Messianist nonsense from Lubavitch and integrate them into the rest of the mainstream. They have much to offer Klal Israel and Judaism would be forever enhanced if this were to happen.