Rabbi Gil Student notes the above Chabad messianic poster for a 11 Nissan concert in honor of the birthday of the "Rebbe Melech HaMashiach" (The Rebbe King Messiah). Below the photograph of the Rebbe in white type it reads: "Yechi adonaynu moreynu v'rabbaynu melech hamoshiach l'olam vo'ed!" (Long live our master our teacher our rabbi king messiah forever and ever!). David Klinghoffer would have you believe Chabad messianism does not exist. Here is absolute proof that Klinghoffer is wrong.
UPDATE: A commenter on Hirhurim notes the root of the problem:
I think many people here are completely missing the point, as is common in any discussion about Chabad.
The heresy in Chabad has very little to do with the Messianism. As many people have correctly pointed out, believing that a dead Rebbe is the Messiah is little more than stupidity and foolishness.
Most Lubavitchers are heretics simply because they beleive that the Rebbe is omnipotent and omniscient; as such they believe that they should direct their prayers and supplications to him. (As someone who spent most of his life in Chabad schools and camps, I am in an excellent position to judge the beliefs of your average Lubavitcher.)
The source of this belief is the Rebbe himself. He writes (Likutei Sichos volume two, pages 510-511), "How can one make a request of a rebbe? Isn't that surely a problem of speaking to God through an intermediary?"
His answer is shocking. He prefaces it by explaining that the concept that he is about to express is a novel one, an idea not found in other books of Chassidus.
He answers as follows, "One cannot ask a question from the problem of an intermediary since 'Atzmus u'mehus alein vi er hat zich areingeshtalt in a guf'"
"Atzmus u'mehus alein vi er hat zich areingeshtalt in a guf!" For those non-Yiddish speakers, the Rebbe says that a rebbe is simply "the essence of God enclothed in a body!"
There's your kefirah.
(It is also worthwhile to see what the Rebbe writes in Igros Kodesh, vol. 3 pp. 419-420 about a Lubavitchers relationship with his rebbe.
"A person must, from time to time, think about himself and his position and situation, but the rest of the time it's better to think about the Rebbe, how he is constantly with his mekusharim (those with whom the Rebbe is bound, i.e. his Chassidim, and how he leads them through every step.")
David | 03.31.06 - 1:38 am | #