Chabad Theology & 770 Lawsuit Both Back In News

The Forward reports on the lawsuit over control of the main Lubavitch synagogue in Crown Heights, Brooklyn:

…There probably would not have been a protracted lawsuit if it were not for the fact that the views of the young vandals coincided with the elected leaders, or gabbais, of the religious congregation in the basement of 770.

In his affidavit, the lead gabbai, Rabbi Zalman Lipskier, wrote that “the real issue in dispute involves conflicting views on how our faith views the passing of the Grand Rebbe Schneerson and whether or not at this time he may be referred to publicly as the Messiah.”

Lipskier and the other gabbais were chosen most recently in a 2005 election that was open to Lubavitch community members in Crown Heights. The gabbais have long been able to control discourse in the synagogue because they have run the day-to-day affairs in the downstairs area of the building. For the lawsuit, they have submitted documents showing that they pay the electric bills and also that they have paid for the entryway in which the offending plaque was installed.…

A recent visit to the synagogue downstairs indicated the strong influence that the messianic gabbais have over the sanctuary. During the services, most worshippers joined in a spirited prayer that celebrated the rebbe as the messiah. On the northern wall of the sanctuary is a long banner that says “Live Our Master, Teacher, Rebbe King Moshiach Forever and Ever.”

“What does it mean, he is alive?” said Yitzhak Fuchs, a 47-year-old congregant who was standing outside in a worn suit.

“We learned the king messiah is not going to die. He is going to disappear, but he’s not dead,” said Fuchs, who, like many of the other worshippers, wore a small, yellow lapel pin with a crown and the word messiah in Hebrew.

The unanswered question at the core of the lawsuit is whether the global leadership of Chabad — men like Rabbi Yehudah Krinsky and Rabbi Yisroel Shemtov — actually disagree with Fuchs and the gabbais about the rebbe’s status as messiah.…

In the court case, the global leaders of Chabad avoid commenting on the messiah issue, and state that the matter to be settled is one of real estate and not religious dogma…

In the basement at 770, the fervent messianists appear to be carrying the day for now. Despite repeated attempts to install a new plaque [mentioning the Rebbe's death, not his "disappearance"], the only sign of it today is a gap in the wall, with messy streaks of plaster. In the middle of the gap is a brown stone that was originally put there by the rebbe. As men walk into the synagogue at all hours, they touch the stone and kiss their fingers.

As many of us have pointed out, there are no clear statements from Chabad so-called anti-messianist leadership stating that the Rebbe is not the messiah, and I have yet to meet a shaliach (Chabad representative) who would say the Rebbe is not the messiah. The Forward piece quotes Rabbi Dr. David Berger who believes the real division in Chabad today is over whether the Rebbe "died"* and will reappear as the messiah or whether he has simply "disappeared" and will reappear as the messiah. *[But this death is not viewed as death is in the wider world. See here for an example of this.]

As usual, Berger has missed the forest for a tree. The anti-messianists say the Rebbe died only because death is how the world understands what happened to the Rebbe. Saying the Rebbe did not die or is still alive makes the movement look bizarre and hurts fundraising and outreach. But privately, these people do not refer to the Rebbe as deceased in the way the world understands death.

For their part, the messianists don't play those games. They believe the Rebbe is still alive and did not die, did not experience death – and they say so.

The difference between the two camps is only over how to publicly deal with the event they refer to as Gimmel Tammuz (the date of the Rebbe's passing).

The Forward itself errs when it describes 770 as the Rebbe's "home." (Although it could be argued the Rebbe lived there after his stroke.) It was the home and office of the Previous Rebbe, and the home of his older son-in-law Rabbi Shmaryahu Gurary and his family. It became the Rebbe's office when he took over leadership of Lubavitch after his father-in-law's passing.The Rebbe and his wife had a home on President Street a few blocks from 770.

Read the entire Forward piece here.

Comments

[Rabbi Ariel Sokolovsky]

B"H
Shmaryah it is intersting that you are willing to embrace almost everyone no matter what their ideology is yet you think Chabad is a danger to Orthodox Judaism (while you reject many of the accepted dogmas of the Orthodox Judaism in fact more so as the time goes on)because it's leaders use very strong metaphors regarding the Rebbe "alive" "G-d" etc. which are based on the words of thew sages about tzadikim and Moshiach.
Why should it bother you if someone takes these things literally anymore than a 5 year old child who literaly believes based on Rashi's commentary taught to him that G-d has hands "Yad Hashem Mamash" see: http://rebbegod.blogspot.com/2006/01/rebbegod-blog-faq.html

It is clear from the Talk of the Rebbe quoted here:

http://rebbegod.blogspot.com/2006/01/rebbegod-blog-faq.html

that these are metaphors as far as an advanced student is concerned.
Why recicle the complaints of the early misnagdim against Chassidim when this was already answered many times in 200 years:
ואין לתמוה אם ניצוץ מהארת שכינה, נקרא בשם שכינה
There is no need to wonder at a spark of the radiance of the Shechinah being referred to (in Tzavaat HaRivash) as Shechinah.

דהא אשכחן שאפילו מלאך נברא נקרא בשם ה׳, בפרשת וירא, לפירוש הרמב״ן

For we find that even a created angel, which is not a spark of the Shechinah, is referred to by G‑d’s Name in Parshat VaYeira, in the verse,59 “And he said, ‘Lord, do not pass by your servant,” according to the commentary of R. Moses Nachmanides (the Ramban);

וכמו שכתוב: ותקרא שם ה׳ הדובר אליה וכו׳, וכהאי גוונא טובא

and as it is likewise written,60 “And [Hagar] called the name of G‑d Who spoke to her...,” where we are explicitly told that we are speaking of an angel; and many more [passages] like this.

* * *

The above quote is referenced in a footnote in the biography of the Alter Rebbe
the 1st Rebbe of Chabad as an explanation as to why Chassidim sometimes called their Rebbes G-d which was one of the accusations against them.
It's explained in the Midrash commenting on Yeshiahu (Issiah) 52 that King Moshiach (Messiah) will be exalted even above angels thus it shouldn't be surprising that he too is called by G-d's name.

http://rebbegod.blogspot.com/2006/12/why-call-someone-g-d.html
Why don't you demand Orthodox/Chareidi leadership put a disclaimer in sidurim that angels are not literal (according to the Rambam they aren't) that G-d doesn't literally sit stand flyis on the cheruvim gets angry etc. as strongly as you demand similar type of things from Chabad leadership?
By the way if you read the Moreh Nevuchim Rambam's Guide for the Perplexed you will find an intersting paradox while he says that in reality G-d doesn't realy gets angry or has other emotions and whoever believes that is a heretic yet few pages later he himself uses same language that G-d gets angry against idolworshippers etc. so why not make a site attacking Rambam for this "duplicity" same way you and Berger and the like enjoy attacking Chabad?!:-)

[ira kaufman]

its a breath of fresh air to see the normalisher menchen exert themselves once more to hopefully bring chabad back to the great respect they once had.the next step should be finding the newe rebbe.

[rebeljew]

Ariel

But that's not what you mean when you say the Rebbe is G-d. That is not what you mean at all, is it. Stop trying to obfuscate by claiming that we do not know what "is" is.

[Rabbi Ariel Sokolovsky]

B"H
Dear RebelJew
I mean exactly what I am saying in context of Chassidus.
There is even a more direct Sicha Rav Boruch Merkur editor of Beis Moshiach quoted to me earlier to the effect that when Moshiach will be called by Hashem's name it will be a "borrowed title". A scholar of Chassidus such as yourself knows that borrowed title expression is used in the Tanya to explain why it says that whoever has more than 50% mitzvos is a tzadik etc. Thus it is clear that I cannot mean something that goes against the Rebbe's publicly expressed teachings.
What is perhaps confusing you is that I am comfortable with other people taking it literally and I have explained it to you already once again in previous post see the Sicha quoted in the link there. Same way it is ok for a child or a beginning student of the Torah to think that Hashem has a literal hand (Yad Hashem mamash) according to Rashi so to it is ok for such a person to understand
Atzmus u mehus arangeshtalt in a guf - essence and being of G-d as He placed Himself in a body literally and eternal life soul in a body just concealed etc etc etc
It is very clear on RebbeGod blog that I present different explanations from the sages tfor all kinds of people to be able to understand these ideas on their own level as long as they have come to read and understand not simply to find evidence of "idol-worhsip"
write a nasty or mocking comment and leave.
Perhaps the parable about mother and grandmother explaining differntly to a child why leaves change color in the fall in the begining of Proffesor Aryeh Gotfryd's video on faith and science might help you to understand what I am trying to say about differnt people understandng and explaining things on different levels: http://rebbegod.blogspot.com/2007/03/where-faith-and-science-meet.html ...

[chief doofis]

Enough with the narishkeit already. Whether you can find some obscure heter to refer to the Rebbe Zatzal as G-d, or not, is irrelevant. We ALL have a Rabbi that we refer to in matters of Halacha, Mussar, etc. Nobody else calls their Rabbi, G-d. We all refer to Moses, as Moshe Rabbeinu, alav hashalom. We refer to Ezra, as Ezra Hasofer, Rashi, is Rashi (hakadosh), R, Yosef Karo, simply the Mechaber, the Vilna Gaon, merely as the Gaon, etc., etc.

Who put the bug in you, to refer to an Achron as G-d. Get with it!! The religion is 3,500 years old. Only a handful of Jews ever (before) referred to anyone as G-d. Their spiritual descendants butchered six million of us, plus millions others on separate occasions. Do your mitzvot, daven, learn Torah, etc. If your Rebbe really is / was the Messiah, he will wake up one day, and tell all of us that he is, and no one will doubt it because we will have a Bet - Hamikdash, the real Aron, universal peace, universal belief in the one G-d, etc. If I am the Messiah, or if you are the Messiah, or if my neighbor is the Messsiah, we will all know. Until then, shut up!! Do the right thing. And, if we all do the right thing, Be'ito Achishenu N'um Hashem!!

[Paul Freedman Disillusioned Jew]

Ariel--sometimes you treat it as a metaphor. Once however, you get to "Atzmus u mehus arangeshtalt in a guf - essence and being of G-d as He placed Himself in a body literally and eternal life soul in a body just concealed etc etc etc" you treat it literally. What you really mean is that the expression that the Rebbe is G-d should be understood with all the sophistication traditionaly brought to the concept of G-d, or, RebbeG-d; that is, because he is G-d we shouldn't say that G-d is necessarily a man because, after all, the Rebbe is not a man but G-d. Talk about concealed: a concept traditionally considered heresy presented as heterodox and both sides played against the dialectic middle, a kind of recursive tension, but one defining the essence of the Rebbe's Divinity. Nobody outside of Chabad ever talked this way about Essence in a corporal body or wandered back and forth over the yellow line between honorifically calling their Rabbi "G-d[ly]" and yes, literally claiming he was, when it comes down to it, Divine. Ever. Try speaking to the heads of traditional schools in kabbalah, this whole G-d in a box thing, whether outside Chabad in other dynasties or in the wider Orthodox community.

[seraphya berrin]

"As many of us have pointed out, there are no clear statements from Chabad so-called anti-messianist leadership stating that the Rebbe is not the messiah, and I have yet to meet a shaliach (Chabad representative) who would say the Rebbe is not the messiah."

Does this mean any level of shaliach anywhere in the world? And when you say " who would say the Rebbe is not the messiah" do you mean you would want them to say "we have no reason to assume the Rebbe is the messiah more than any other gadol in history"(a ridiculous statement, but I heard it from a chabadnik) or would you want them to say "There is no way the rebbe is the messiah"?

[Shmarya]

The latter. But I've never heard the former, either.

[Rabbi Borat son in law of Yudel-Almighty]

B"H
Dear Paul!
Nobody outside of Chabad ever talked this way about Essence in a corporal body or wandered back and forth over the yellow line between honorifically calling their Rabbi "G-d[ly]" and yes, literally claiming he was, when it comes down to it, Divine. Ever.
What the heck are you talking about read:
http://torah.5u.com/Atzmus.pdf
thus in Judaism we always had many "G-ds" in a body Atzmus in a Guf Chernobyller Rebbe G-d , Rimonover Rebbe Hashem in a silk Kapota Berditchever Rebbe saying you can bow down to a tzadik for it is not a shituf since he is one with G-d etc.

and
in some of the similar quotes in English:
This concept is based upon many Jewish sources, listed below are a sampling of the many sources.

It is stated in the Zohar: "Et pnei Ha'adon Hashem - Do Rashbi" (Lit.: "the Countenance of the Lord Hashem - this is Rabbi shimon Bar Yochai.")
In the Jerusalem Talmud (Eruvin, Chapter 5, Halacha 1), "All the standing that the prophet Elijah did before his teacher Achiya Hashiloni, were as if he was standing before the Shekhinah." And this is explained in Yesod HaAvoda in the name of the Radbaz "This was because Achiya had his mind and thoughts connected and cleaved to the greatness of the holy one, and Elijah when he stood before his teacher connected his thoughts with the thoughts of his teacher with the love from his heart, and therefore it was as if he stood in front of the Shekhinah"
Bahya ben Asher (Ki Sisa, 33:7) comments on the verse "And Moses took the tent and pitched it for himself outside the camp, distancing [it] from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting, and it would be that anyone seeking the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp." saying that "From here we see that Moses was called with the Tetragrammaton, and we also find that Jacob is called with El...And we also find by the name of a Tzadik that he is called with the Tetragrammaton...And we also find that by King Messiah that he is called with the Tetragrammaton as it is stated (Jeremiah 23:6)and this is his name that he shall be called, The Lord is our righteousness...And the reason by all of them is because one who cleaves to something, is called by the thing which he is cleaving to."
Yoel Sirkis (Bach on the Tur Orach Chaim 47) "The purpose of the blessed one was always that one should be involved in Torah in order to bond our souls in the essence and spirituality and holiness of the source of the giver of the Torah...And if one is involved in Torah study with this intention, one becomes a Markavah and Heichal for the Shekhinah may he be blessed, so that the Shekhinah is literally within them, because they are a Heichal to God and within them literally the Shekhinah establishes its dwelling place."
Chaim Volozhin (Nefesh Hachaim Shaar Aleph Chapter 4)"If someone sanctifies himself properly through the performance of all the Mitzvot...Then he himself is the Beit HaMikdash itself...Because this is the truth regarding Tzadikim through the deeds which are desirable by the blessed one they are the Mikdash mamash"
Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (Mesillas Yesharim Chapter 26)"The holy one who cleaves constantly to God and his soul fires up with true intellectual understanding with great love of his creator and fear...Behold a person like this, he himself, is considered to be like the Tabernacle Beit HaMikdash and the Mizbeiach...And also it is said regarding Tzadikim they are the Markavah, because the Shekhinah dwells in them just like it dwelled in the Beit HaMikdash."
Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler (Marbitzei Torah U'Musar 3rd Section pg 10) "And this thing is so much certain to one that thinks in depth about it, until it is impossible to understand how someone can argue on it, and so was already mentioned in the words of many of the great scholars like the Ramchal and others, that the image of Tzadikim is Hashem may he be blessed, himself, and they are the same"

with Ariel Sokolovsky knowing all the above quotes and in fact publishing them on his blog how can you lthink he treats these more than metaphors?
And in truth the 7th Lubavitcher Rebbe the Moshiach of previous generation quotes some of the above statements in the Sicha on a Rebbe being Atzmus in a Guf showing that what he is saying is not really a new concept.
Now however it is all differnt as we are in 8th generation of the Yudel-Almighty who is totally above nature and even his body is totally shows how the blessed creator looked like when he was creating the world literally 5767 years ago dressed in a black hat and silk kapotah as explained on my cool blog here clikah the link and read :