This week’s internet version of the Yated Ne’eman has an article by Modern Orthodox Rabbi Dr. David Berger. This is quite a departure from the Yated’s normally anti Modern Orthodox position. But if there is one area where Charedim and Modern Orthodoxy are in complete agreement it is in the area of Lubavitch Messianism. Dr. Berger, as many of you may know is in the forefront of trying to get the Torah world to recognize the truth about them. Unfortunately there have been all too few voices raised in the public square about this issue. Aside from Dr. Berger’s heroic efforts, an occasional article by Telzer Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Chaim D. Keller, and Rabbi Gil Student’s book, there has been little else. There is no other voice anywhere like Dr. Berger's. It is as though there is a quiet hope that if we ignore the problem it will go away. But it hasn't. And it won't.
I have been trying to raise consciousness in this area in my own limited way by writing about it several times here and elsewhere. My audience is limited. But the future of Judaism depends on getting the message out. So I continue to do so from time to time each time with a greater readership. Hopefully the message will get out.
What message? The message that Lubavitch is consumed by the belief that their now deceased Rebbe will rise from the dead in a second coming as Moshiach. I cannot say it enough times or emphasize it enough.
I can predict what the response to this will be. It will be along the lines of my unfairly bashing Lubavitch... or that my obervations are wrong... or that what I say simply isn’t true... or that Dr. Berger is a known Lubavitch basher and can't be trusted. But how do you counter the damning evidence brought by Dr. Berger in the Yated article?
This article should be a mandatory read. It is very clear. It provides example after example of doublespeak by Lubavitchers who say they are anti-Meshichist in one venue while clearly indicating they are Meshichist in another. Dr. Berger shows over and over again their use of deceptive tactics, something I have been accusing them of for many years and have written about extensively.
In this case it is about their ends… trying to show the world they are not Meshichist… justify their means… lying about it. All so it won't hurt the public image. Dr. Berger has demonstrated something I have strongly suspected for a long time now, that the vast majority of them are Meshchist at one level or another. The fight is only over whether they should makes those beliefs public. I have yet to hear the most ardent Lubavitcher anti-Meshichist specifically say that their dead Rebbe cannot be Moshiach. They always dance around it… saying that they are the loudest in denouncing Meshichists... that the Rebbe was against people saying he was Moshisach… it is counter to his wishes to promote this idea especially now… it is counter productive to their cause…, mostly true but none of which is an outright repudiation of the belief. In fact the opposite is true. One of their most ardent anti Meshichists, Dr Immanuel Shochat, when pressed against the wall fiercely defends that belief as well within normative Judaism!
The Lubavitch anti-Meshichists and have literally gone to war with the Meshichist factions. But as Dr Berger points out it is all in the cause of PR. Their true beliefs are demonstrated over and over again and are virtually identical to those of the early Hebrew Christians. They too believed that their leader was Moshiach and would have a second coming. They did not think their leader was a Diety. That came later from Paul. And just like the Meshichists of today they too were followers of Halacha. The abrogation of Halacha came later from Peter.
Will Lubavitch follow the path of Christianity? Well hasn’t’ it already begun down that path? They have their “Pauls” now. They are the Boreniks referring to The Rebbe as God in a body. How far is that from Christianity? Sure Most Lubavitchers are horrified themselves by these people and claim they are but a handful of crazy people. But they are only repeating the ideas spoken of by the Rebbe himself…. that as a human perfects himself and gets closer to God he can achieve such perfection that he reflects the essence of God in a body. The Rebbe, they say, achieved such perfection. And as such he can be worshipped and prayed to in the same way that one prays to God provided that one realizes that that such an individual is not a separate Deity but God Himself! Though they are a small minority amongst Lubavitch, I suspect the numbers are far greater than they would have us believe.
I implore everyone to read the internet Yated link I provided above. And then I urge everyone to contact their rabbinic leaders, Roshei Yeshiva, and anyone who will listen and is in a position to do anything about it to… do something about it! Direct them to Dr. Berger's article or give them a printout of it. There needs to be a coordinated effort on the part of all segments of Torah Jewry to rectify this once and for all, before it is too late. And it will be too late if the anti-Meshichists in Lubavitch succeed in internalizing and quieting their beliefs, so that know one will know what is really in their hearts.
This is one area where there is complete agreement between the RW and MO. Unfortunately there is also the same degree of indifference. This scourge must be eradicated from out midst. Lubavitchers must be convinced that such views cannot be tolerated by the Torah world. They must either totally repudiate their Meshichist views in any incarnation, with the threat that they will be written out of Judaism if they don’t.
