Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's nephew is a Chabad messianist rabbi teaching in the bastion of Chabad messianism, their yeshiva in Tzefat. While the Prime Minister's nephew declined to comment, other prominent messianists, including the Tzfat Rosh Yeshiva were more than willing to:
PM Sharon's nephew, Rabbi Ofer Miodovnik
Hundreds of rabbis from the so-called messianic camp of the Lubavitcher Hassidim will meet Thursday in Kfar Chabad to formulate a battle strategy against the disengagement plan, which they see as an imminent threat to the Jews of Israel.
They will also discuss ways of better disseminating the message that the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, is the messiah.…
Like many other messianic Chabad rabbis, Pizam's cellphone contains the digits 770, the address of Chabad's headquarters on Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. He answers his phone with the greeting: "Long live our master [the rebbe]."
According to Pizam, since the rebbe is Moshiah, no one can be more qualified than him to warn against the dangers of the disengagement plan.
"The rebbe... said that ceding parts of the Land of Israel to gentiles endangers every single Jew," he said. "We must make this known unabashedly."
Rabbi Yosef Yitzhak Wilschanski, head of the Chabad yeshiva in Safed, also said the rebbe's opinion on this matter must be made known.
"We must do everything in our power to publish the rebbe's teachings on the dangers of giving up land," he said. "It is also incumbent on every one of us to disseminate the idea that the rebbe is Moshiah." More than 400 students learn in the Chabad yeshiva in Safed.
All Chabadniks, and especially the more messianic ones, are emphatic about the dangers of ceding land to the Palestinians and the disengagement plan.…
What perhaps sets the more zealous Chabadniks apart from their colleagues is the belief that disseminating the idea that the rebbe is the messiah must be actively pursued. In fact, the dissemination of the idea actually speeds the coming of the messianic era, they say.
So-called messianic Chabadniks believe that the rebbe, whose 11th yahrzeit is approaching, is really still alive. They admit this leap of faith cannot be rationally understood, but nevertheless adhere to it.
Even Chabadniks who are not openly messianic are said to believe that the rebbe is the messiah. However, they reportedly are apprehensive that openly espousing this belief is detrimental to Chabad's primary mission – to bring secular Jews closer to authentic Judaism.
Again, the Jerusalem Post's Mati Wagner has done an excellent job of accurately capturing the state of Chabad today.