The same (or very similar) tactic used by this messianist Chabad rabbi to determine what the Rebbe, who passed away almost 15 years ago, wanted him to do was apparently also used by the Chabad rabbi and his wife killed in Mumbai to determine whether or not they should continue to have children after the first was born with Tay Sachs Disease.
It may have also been used to determine whether the couple – who first two children had Tay Sachs and died excruciating deaths from it – should marry and it was also apparently used to determine whether or not the family should return to Israel to be with their dying children as they suffered for many months in an Israeli hospital. The Rebbe's "answer" was to stay in Mumbai. His earlier "answers" were to get married, have children and then, after the first child was born with Tay Sachs, keep having children.
If these Ouija Board answers really are the "Rebbe's answers," Menachem Mendel Schneerson has much to answer for. If they're not his answers, he still has much to answer for.
And isn't it comforting to know that the spokesman for one of Israel's right wing parties is a Chabad messianist?
Here's a lesson in Jewish history for you. Until a schism is officially in place, any theological differences –no matter how great, no matter how crucial to the core of Judaism those differences are – are thrown to wind by "normative" Rabbinic Judaism when a real or perceived benefit to do so exists.
Chabad is very useful for business travelers because Chabad has thousands of Chabad Houses scattered all over the world. And, of course, Modern Orthodox and haredi businessmen travel to China and India (and even sometimes to Kansas and Las Vegas) on business.
Chabad is also very useful for Israel's right wing Religious Zionist leaders and activists because Chabad is the only haredi group that is 100% hard right wing politically when it comes to territorial issues.
Lastly, the OU and other kosher supervisors, including haredi supervisors, have long relied on local Orthodox rabbis to inspect food manufacturers located outside the NYC area. In may if not most cases, those rabbis are Chabad. Modern food producers rely on ingredients sourced from all over the world. Your OU supervised and endorsed cookie can easily have ingredients sourced from three continents. Many of those ingredients carry the supervision of Chabad rabbis.
To formalize a schism with Chabad – or even to formalize theological opposition to Chabad messianism and related Ouija Board activities – would mean that Orthodox businessmen would no longer be able to eat at Chabad of Mumbai or Hong Kong, and it would mean the kosher food business as we now know it would be thrown into chaos. And it also would mean Israel's right wing would potentially lose a very important ally.
So no schism is formalized and no theological line in the sand is drawn.
Instead, important haredi rabbis privately (i.e., when speaking to a small group of close students or to individuals) tell people to be wary of Chabad and to "stay far away" from it, as one said. But those statements are not put in writing by these important haredi.
For its part, several years ago American Modern Orthodoxy did, through the Rabbinical Council of America, pass a resolution against Chabad messianism.
But the OU largely ignores that resolution. For that matter, so does RCA leadership.
There will be no formal schism with Chabad, no viable theological line in the sand, until Chabad ceases to be useful for Orthodox leaders and wealthy businessmen – and that does not seem likely anytime in the near or distant future.
This means belief in a dead messiah will become a "normative" Jewish belief, as will Chabad's versions of Ouija Boards and other seemingly forbidden peculiarities.
Strange, isn't it? To have your soul sold for a piece of OU certified bread or for a dilapidated trailer parked on a dusty hilltop in Judea?
Bolivian policemen close local Chabad house
By MATTHEW WAGNER, Jerusalem Post
A young Chabad couple convinced they had been sent to Rurrenabaque, Bolivia, by the deceased Lubavitcher Rebbe had a run-in this week with local police amid a flurry of rumors of drug trafficking and an assassination attempt against the country's president.
Bolivian police raided a Chabad house this week in the small vacation town, a popular tourist site for Israeli backpackers, and ordered that it remain closed until further notice.
Two Israeli travelers staying at the Chabad house were arrested and later released, according to Rabbi Aharon Freiman, 22, who spoke with The Jerusalem Post from Rurrenabaque Thursday.
Freiman said he had not been arrested.
"Nobody from the police or from other government authorities has explained the reason for the raid or for the order to close our place," said Freiman, who opened the Chabad house two months ago.
"I've heard different rumors," added Freiman, who said he did not speak Spanish well. "Some claim that this is a crackdown against drug trafficking. A lot of Israelis who come here smoke hashish and marijuana. Another rumor going around is that this is somehow connected with the attempted assassination of the [Bolivian] president."
On April 16, President Evo Morales, the country's first indigenous president and an outspoken critic of the US, said that police had thwarted an assassination attempt against him. Three suspects were killed and two were arrested.
Morales, who faces strong opposition among wealthy Bolivians, has made allegations in the past of attempts to assassinate him.
Freiman said that he and wife Sarah had come to Bolivia to bring Judaism to traveling Israelis and to spread the message that Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson - the last spiritual leader of Chabad, who passed away in 1994 - was the messiah.
"I have faith that we will be all right. People who are sent on a holy mission cannot be hurt," said Freiman, who answered the phone in Bolivia with the greeting, "Long live our master, our teacher and our rabbi, the messiah king forever," referring to Schneerson.
"The rebbe sent us here, so we have nothing to fear," he said.
Freiman said that he had "contacted" Schneerson by randomly placing a piece of paper with a question in a collection of the rabbi's letters. The "answer" was that the Freimans should go to Rurrenabaque and establish a Chabad House.
Rabbi Menachem Brod, an official Chabad spokesman, said that he was unfamiliar with the Chabad house in Rurrenabaque and that Freiman and his wife did not represent Chabad.
Shay Geffen, a member of the more messianic stream within Chabad and a spokesman for the National Union Party, said that several MKs were attempting to intervene with Bolivian authorities on behalf of the Freimans, including Michael Ben-Ari (National Union), Meir Porush (United Torah Judaism) and Danny Ayalon (Israel Beiteinu).
[Hat Tip: Joel Katz.]