Yesterday I had the somewhat difficult task of participating in the Shachris Shiva Minyan of a neighbor of mine. He has lost his father. Although I am not very close with him, he is a prince of an fellow, the kind of man who would give you the shirt off his back. And he has done many acts of kindness for many people. He has a very sweet disposition and is generous to a fault. So, I felt a obligation both in the Mitzvah of Nichum Aveilim, and just plain Mentchlichkiet to go across the street and participate in this Minyan.
As an aside, this fellow has a very interesting history. He is about my age, a Baal Teshuva, who, in his pre-religious days, accompanied Jane Fonda on her infamous trip to Viet Nam at the height of the war. He was a musician and he played in a band she put together for the trip.
I don’t know what route he took to become Frum; I only met him after. He has been Frum for decades, long before he got married and had a family.
He is a Lubavitcher now. And a Meshichist. I knew this going into the Minyan but felt an obligation anyway because of the character of the man. “How bad could it be?” …I thought. OK, he’s a Meshichist, so what… I’ll Daven, be Menachem Avel, and then go home and eat breakfast.
Well, it was bad! They said Yechi, three times in responsive fashion (Chazan and then Congregation)! They did that Twice! Once right after Kriyas HaTorah with the Sefer Torah open right in front of them, and then once immediately after the last Kaddish.
Though I have heard that Meshichists do this during Davening, it was still quite shocking to experience during Teffila at a Minyan. There were about 25 people there, mostly Lubavitchers all of whom looked rather normal, all of them from differing socio-economic situations but when it came to saying Yechi, everyone there did it as though it was part of the actual Teffilah! It was all very matter fact. Kind of like saying Amen, Yehei Shmei Rabbah during Kaddish. I have seen it before at weddings and the like, but never during Teffilah B’Tzibur. Even though I had heard that Meshichist Minyanim do this, I didn’t expect it. It was really upsetting.
I thought that I had all the overt Meshichists all figured out. I thought I knew who they were or the type of people they were. But I didn’t really until Yesterday. I had thought they were mostly Baalei Teshuva with a smattering of FFBs who were a bit off …walking around with their eyes slightly galzed over. But… no. They were as normal as I was in every way except one.
They were saying, "Yechi Adoneinu Moreinu v'Rabbeinu Melech haMoshiach l'olam va'ed!" They were proclaiming “long live… etc.” to a dead man. People as normal and diverse as one could imagine… but unified on this one issue.
I do not think it is possible any longer to know who is a Meshichist and who is not in Lubavitch. Almost all of them have large families with many children. The children that were at the Minyan were all saying it, too: “Long live… a dead man!” This how they sre being raised. These children don’t have a chance.
There were also a few so-called anti-Meshichist Lubavitchers there and they seemed to be going along right with it, reinforcing my contention that the vast majority of Lubavitchers are either overt Meshihists or closet Meshichists. The only differences are the degree of belief and the level of exposure that they feel those beleifs should get. The closet Meshichists realize that the rest of the world is critical of those beliefs and feel it counter-productive to trumpet them. So they stay in the closet and don’t talk about it. But in their hearts… at some level, most of them believe it. The Rebbe is the Melech HaMoshiach. Or at least will be resurrected as the Melech HaMoshiach… long may he live!
A couple of non Lubavitcher friends of mine who were at the Minyan smlied at me when they heard it, knowing my views on the issue. But I did not smile back. It was disconcerting to me to think that this group is so large, the demographic is so varied, their families so large, and their Kiruv work so vast.
It has been 12 years since the death of the Rebbe. Lubavitch has not imploded like many had expected it to. The exact opposite has happened. Their population has exploded, and they seem to be growing by leaps and bounds. And the fact that they can be found all over the world makes them quite user friendly for those of us who travel to areas where there are no Jews, or Kosher food. You can always find a Chabad house. And they are always more than happy to accomodte you. Indeed often they will go out of their way to do so. And their PR machine is the best in the world opporating 24/7. This makes it difficult to want to fight them.
I have written about Lubavitch before. There is nothing really new here. But I couldn’t help getting the feeling that the Meshichsism of Lubavitch is a greater danger to Judaism than anyone currently realizes. It would not surprise me that in one or two generations Lubavitch will be the largest segment of Frum Jews in the world. By far. And they will all be Meshichsists in some form.
Meanwhile the rest of Orthodox rabbinic leadership remains silent. Their attitude, I am told is that they feel it will all just go away and that fighting them openly will only make things worse. Not to worry, they say. The problem will take care of itself. Eventually reason will prevail.
But I do not see that happening. The opposite is. And the fact that one of the most strident anti-Meshichsit Lubavitchers, Dr. Immanuel Shochet goes out of his way to defend the legitimacy of Meshichist theolgy is yet another factor which shows how strongly ingrained Meshichism is within all of them. Our rabbinc leadership doesn’t see this and they continue to do nothing. I wish they could have been at this Minyan with me.
