Chabad Messianist Starts School For Aspiring Prophets

The Cain and Able School of Prophets is located in south Tel Aviv. It’s founder, Rabbi Shmuel Portman Hapartzi, is a Chabad messianist. Hapartzi believes that the generation of redemption has already arrived. Therefore, he claims, training a new generation of prophets is permitted.

Chabad Messianist Starts School For Aspiring Prophets
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

The Talmud rules that prophesy ended almost 2500 years ago, and that it will not be reinstated until the coming of the messiah, and that has been the standard Jewish position on the institution, codified by Maimonides and citied by many other rabbinic figures since then.

But there were some deviations.

Several false messiahs, like Shabbtai Tsvi, claimed to be prophets. Some, like Tsvi, also had their own court ‘prophet,’ in Tsvi’s case, Nathan of Gaza, to announce their messianic arrival.

All of these messianic incidents led to bad outcomes – mass conversions to other religions, widespread destitution caused by Jews selling non-movable property at steeply discounted prices so they could ascend to the Land of Israel with their ‘messiah,’ and suicides.

But Ynet reports that a new school opening this week intends to train a whole new generation of Jewish prophets – for a fee.
 
The Cain and Able School of Prophets is located in south Tel Aviv. It’s founder, Rabbi Shmuel Portman Hapartzi, is a Chabad messianist. Hapartzi believes that the generation of redemption has already arrived. Therefore, he claims, training a new generation of prophets is permitted.
 
"Our generation has been declared by many as the first generation taking part in the experience of redemption. The Cain and Able School of Prophets aims to provide the generation of young prophets with authorized sources to direct their spiritual experiences to way of truth and honesty,” the introduction to the school’s curriculum reads.

What, exactly, will this Chabad messianist school be teaching future “prophets”?

The curriculum reportedly contains classes on face reading, dream interpretation, ways to achieve ruach hakadosh (the holy spirit), and an introduction on the way angels communicate and participate in our lives.
 
Heady stuff, a curriculum you might think would take years to study – but not at the The Cain and Able School of Prophets. The entire prophets’ course is only 10 one hour lectures. Complete those 10 hours, pay $52, and you, too, can be a prophet.

The Cain and Able School of Prophets is too extreme even for many Chabad messianists, who prefer to wait for the second coming of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson in relative peace. And any time they feel in need of prophecy, all they have to do is randomly slip a note into the pages of one of Schneerson’s books and then scan the pages the note is resting between to find Schneerson’s "prophetic" “answer.”
 
But Hapartzi insists he is not crazy.

"I'm not a freak. I have solid answers to every single question on this subject. I have been collecting material for the school for several years now. I am proficient in the material and I have translated most of it from Russian to Hebrew."

Ynet asked Hapartzi a few questions:

Has the curriculum been approved by any rabbis?

"Everything being studied is based on biblical principles."

How many prophets are you planning on training?

"We already have 10 students who will start the basic course this week. The good students will continue and, with God's help, achieve divine spirit and serve as prophets. There are several levels of prophecy I hope my students will reach."

Aren't you afraid people will start prophesying on the streets and it will all go out of control?

"I wish. But it won't just happen without a person being chosen from above."

Do you have any ways to identify false prophets?

"The truth is that there are many institutions today for the study of Kabbalah, mysticism and black witchcraft, and it does confuse people. I teach strictly kosher material and teach my students to distinguish between true prophecy and false prophecy and between a real dream and a false dream."

How can you be trusted?

"Because I've started doing it too recently."

[Hat Tips: Dovid, GW.]

Comments

[Garnel Ironheart]

Oh cool! Finally I'll be able to stand up in an old bathrobe and announce "Here ye the word of the Lord, ye long suffering Toronto Maple Leaf fans. For ye have long wandered in the desert of the missed playoffs and thine suffering has been noted. Great is thine suffering, so great that the Lord doth wish it to continue for a long while yet!"

[John Nagle, Silicon Valley, CA]

Final exam: What are tomorrow's Powerball numbers?

[ah-pee-chorus]

and an introduction on the way angels communicate and participate in our lives.

students must first show proficiency in training dragons and talking to invisible unicorns. if one cant afford the tuition, similar classes are being offered at psychiatric units around the world, by fellow patients for free.

[jancsibacsi]

I prophesize that it will be a big flop but not before lots of dupes will loose their time and money and it will be declared a big success for reb shmuel portman hapartzi.

[Jef]

Is this a state funded school or a private one?

[ah-pee-chorus]

i just received a nevuah from shabtai tzvi-he said this guy is nuts.

[Sarek]

He should come to America, so we can have him from seer to shining seer.

If he's a prophet, then he already knows that we think he's nutso. And if he charges for this "education", then he already knows we think he's a gonif.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Shouldn't that read "School for profits"?

[ah-pee-chorus]

i think it should be required that whenever the term "messianist" is used it be hyphenated to "messianist-lunatic".

[Chazal Qaeda]

The guys in this school sound more powerful than the ones in Professor Xavier's...

[wj]

bs ! those 'prophets' will bs ppl to extort them . if the public is aware of it, then it won't be that easy to be swindled . hapartzi is training very dangerous ppl who will brainwash innocent and credulous clean souls .
let's hope these ' prophets' will end up in jail which will prob happen .

chabad is getting worse than they already are . they create all kinds of crazy programs and 'training '. dangerous.

[Gevezener Chusid]

Shouldn't that read "School for profits"?

Posted by: Yochanan Lavie | December 03, 2012 at 01:27 PM

... ain't much profit if the tuition is $52

oh, and that's Cain and Abel, not able.

[DBSesq]

Hey don't knock it. Severus Snape just joined the faculty.

[bas melech]

DBSesq | December 03, 2012 at 02:26 PM

Then it might be a real school!

[Eli, what me messiah?]

this is just....pure genius!

wish I'd thought of it first.

damn.

[Korben Dallas]

Prophets are insane. Hashem told me so.

[thelion]

it is under the hechscher of rabbi and mrs pinto who as prophets never saw their own indictmnet for fraud

[zionist goy]

The price is right at 52.00, you can't get lunch for 2 at that price in n.y. the low price actually makes me inclined to believe the guy is passionately earnest in his cause. If only a circumcised goy could be allowed to audit........

[worried]

This could be the beginning of a dangerous cult. What is the difference between the abuse of these children's minds and physical abuse?

[Fleishike Kishke]

All Chabad are Messiahist. Their main U.S. school Oholei Menachem (formerly Oholei Torah) hangs the piss-pants Rebbe-King-Messiah banner at every school function. ALL Chabad are delusional and insane. Some hide it better. As the recent widower Krinsky clearly says in his court filings, his battle with the 770 Messiahists is over real estate. Owner vs. Squatters in his opinion. Chabad's efforts to evict the Messiahists has nothing to do with ideology.

[Yerachmiel Lopin]

They are going to flood the market with prophets and then there will be no profit.

[Steve]

Very reminiscent of early Christianity - the early Churches had members talking in tongues and others with various other "spiritual gifts." Soon you will see the same with Chabad. Talking in tongues - predicted here first. Naturally it will be stated to be Biblical. I wonder when Chabad will have a Pope and Cardinals.

[A. Nuran]

Great idea! And the moment they get the tiniest detail wrong they're False Prophets and subject to the traditional penalties. I volunteer to throw the first stone.

[No_Light]

Ah, so that's where Adam Neira's gone!

ZG - What do you want, what's your raison d'etre? Nobody gives a shit about the state of your cock, or your embarrassing fawning over frumbag orthofucks.

If you love them so much, why not go the whole hog and convert?

[sadisticstevestrong]

do they offer an online portion? ;)

[Chief Hole-in-the-Sheet]

Some of my best friends are prophets.

[gopjew]

No light obviously needs to get laid by a dude this time in order to lighten up. Hopefully someone will do it for her (but not me.) roflmao

I love girls who try to act tough by yelling and cursing at guys and saying they hate men because after all, having a temper to be tough is easier than doing pushups and situps to be tough.

[unable]

Abel. Not Able.

[Atheodox Jew]

A school for prophets? I see HARRY POTTER spinoff material here!

[Friar Yid]

How serious can this guy be if he named his "prophecy school" (are they like the X-men?) after a pun?

[Dave]

Garnel, hilarious! I came to Canada as a child, in 1964. The last time the Leafs won the Stanley Cup was 1967! Maybe I should declare myself a Navi, ha ha! Not!

[Yochanan Lavie]

I am starting a school for song parody writers.

[mendel]

[Cut and pasted by Mendel]
Prophecy never ended, rather only the era of nevua did:
. It is a commandment from the Torah to obey the prophets. Thus when we listen to a prophet, we are combining the two elements of Divine service: accepting the decree from above, and internalizing it of our own free will.

In the Rebbe's words:

"Just as there is a command to obey 'your judges' at all times, as is written in our Torah portion, Shoftim, so there is a command to obey the prophets, as is written separately in the Torah portion (18:15), 'G-d will set up for you a prophet from your midst, from your brothers, like me, and you shall harken to him.'

"In this context, the Rambam explains, 'One of the fundamentals of the religion is to know that G-d sends His prophecies through people.'

"In his Iggeres Taimon, the Rambam writes that 'as a preparatory step for Moshiach's coming....prophecy will return to Israel.' This can be understood in connection with the explanations above. To prepare us to be able to receive the revelations of the Era of Redemption, we must experience through prophecy a foretaste of the 'advice' that will be communicated in that era.

"It is therefore important for later generations to know that it is 'one of the fundamentals of the religion is to know that G-d sends His prophecies through people.' Always, in all generations, the revelation of prophecy is possible. Moreover, this will include even a level of prophecy which is akin to the prophecy of Moshe as implied by the verse, 'I will set up for them from their brothers like you.' Moshe's level is the zenith of prophecy, as the Rambam explains at great length. Nevertheless it is not exclusive to him, but reflected to others as well.
Here are some latter day prophets:
Rabbi Shmuel Hanavi, Rabbi Elazar Baal "Harokeach," Nachmanides, the Ravad (Rabbi Abraham ben David), Rabbi Ezra Hanavi and Rabbi Yehuda the Chasid, and others.
http://www.torah4blind.org/lwm-5767/522-539.htm#Prophecy%20Today

[A Yid]

"The Talmud rules that prophesy ended almost 2500 years ago, and that it will not be reinstated until the coming of the messiah, and that has been the standard Jewish position on the institution, codified by Maimonides and citied by many other rabbinic figures since then."

Shmarya , where exactly does Maimonides say that?

[rebeljew]

I love it. He teaches strictly kosher material, as opposed to those who teach kabalah, mysticism and black magic. He really knows the difference between a true dream and a false one.

And he pleads, "I am not a freak." OMG!!!! Hysterical!

[dh]

YL, are you serious?