Posted on 02/15/2007 12:04:29 PM PST by ChicagoHebrew
"Joy to the world the Lord has come." This misquote from Isaac Watts, along with a link to a Chabad Web site, appears on a billboard. Not a real billboard, but a Photoshopped one that appears on the Web site of a Chabad activist in the U.S. Advertisement Rabbi Ariel Sokolovsky is a Moldova-born Chabad rabbi in Portland, Oregon, and a more amiable soul would be hard to find. Yet Sokolovsky maintains a blog he entitled "Rebbegod" and refers to Schneerson as "Rebbe-Almighty" among other adulatory sobriquets. Drawing on rabbinical sources, he attempts to show that this is not as revolutionary as it sounds. He concedes that there are few people like him who will openly call the Rebbe God. He claims, however, that many people believe it, but do not say so openly for fear of scaring people away from Chabad altogether. While he argues that the Rebbe and God are not the same thing exactly, he says that he does not object to people thinking that they are the same thing. He recounts an incident in which he confronted his teacher - a senior Chabad rabbi from the former USSR - as to why he would not openly declare the Rebbe to be God. According to Sokolowsky, the senior rabbi jokingly warned him: "there can be many gods but only one Moshiach."
(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...
I think I pretty clearly suggested it was "new." A Jewish movement can be "new" and still be Jewish. Having said that, however, I should point out, that I think some of the cultural tendency of Hassidism are more particularly Hassidic than generally Jewish.
Have you forgotten that orthodox Jews opposed Hassidism? Ever hear of Elijah ben Shlomo Zalman? Isn't the only reason why the Hassidic Jews and Orthodox Jews get along today because of the threat against both from the Haskala movement at one time?
Conservative (Orthodox) Evangelical Christians beleve that Jesus was the Active Creator as described in the first three verses of the Book of John. They also believe that there is a Trinity comprised of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
All three are equal and how they interact is a great mystery....But Christ always gave us His Example of obedience to the Father.
Translation for all the gentiles or even Jews with no exposure to Yiddish. "Yekke/Yechi" is the term for a German Jew. "Galizianer/Galitsiener" is the term for someone from Galicia, a region of what is now Poland and Western Ukraine. However, there are also secondary meanings. German Jews thought themselves cosmopolitan and above the country bumpkins from the east.
Actually, the Rebbe was quite coy about it and did not discourage such talk. The Chabadniks will tell you of the 300 rabbis who have signed on to a declaration that the Rebbe was the "King Moshiach". He also did not object to their chanting of "Yechi", declaring him the Moshiach.
I agree. Those views were actually drnounced by the rebbe himself while he was alive. I saw this myself on two occasions..
No, what I meant by the "yechis" are the confused Lubavitchers who shout "Yechi adonainu morenu v'rabbenu" as though the Rebbe OB"M is still alive.
They are by no means the majority of the Chabad leadership and the shluchim. They are annoying, but they are not overwhelming the movement.
A German Jew is referred affectionatly as a "Yekke."
Not all Jews opposed the Hassidim. There were deep divisions among Jews at that time over them. Many supported the Hassidic movement as many did not.
The Haskala movement was indeed a unifying force among observant Jews. Despite the common rejection of the "enlightenment movement", there were deep divisions that remained well into the 1900's between Hassidim and their opponants. The primary reason that the "Mitnagdim" and Hassidim have reduced tension is that the philosophical differences between them has mostly disappeared. There is little disagreement on the original issues that separated the two sides in the first place.
Not true. The Rebbe not only did discourage it, but a full year before his passing he openly declared that he had done "all he could do" to bring Moshiach and was leaving the rest to "you". It was one his most famous public pronouncements. It was hardly a declaration or a wink and a nod of encouragement.
Chabadniks will tell you of the 300 rabbis who have signed on to a declaration that the Rebbe was the "King Moshiach".
Yes. When he was alive. His followers obviously thought he was the best person in our generation to fulfill their hopes and desires of Moshiach arriving. Now that he has passed on, there are no more declarations of such from the leadership or disparate clergy in the Chabad movement. The previous Rebbe was also considered by many of his followers to possibly be Moshiach, as was the Rebbe before him.
I know what I see -- from the Yechi dancing at half a dozen Chabad shuls I've been to, to ads in the NY Post proclaiming the Rebbe moshiach, to the hundreds of billboards, signs and mechichesti missionaries I saw last month in Israel. Claiming that the meschichestim are a small minority of Chabad is like claiming that only a small minority of Muslims support terrorism. Stop denying the problem -- it's not a small number, it's a large and growing movement. I've been to Israel several times in the past few years. Everytime the meschichestism is worse. And 770 resembles a Baptist revival tent.
Dress formally...
...and probably expect a hora dance or two.
:-)
Fascinating...
...so what are Jews from the Ukraine called?
:-)
I don't see any meshichisten committing mass murder. Stop exaggerating the problem. I don't care for the yellow flags and buttons but these people harm no one. The overwhelming majority of the Chabad shluchim--the ones who do the Rebbe's work all over the world--do not belong to this kit.
Tell me what is the top leadership of Chabad supposed to do? Are they supposed to spend all their precious time running around after these people? Put up billboards proclaiming that the Rebbe is NOT moshiach? Put out a "fatwah" that such people are to be killed on sight? Perform a "Pulsa De Nura?"
They have other, more positive contributions to make to humanity.
The difference between the oral tradition and the written Bible is your answer.
Where is the blood sacrifice?
Explained away, just like the rest of Judaism.
Chabad is indeed a different religion, though, not that new.
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