Oy Vey. What have they done to the Rebbe? …meharsayich umachrivayich mimeayich… His dedicated chassidim, who blindly and faithfully followed him, and still do today, trample on his legacy.
Ten years (almost) before the petirah (histalkus) of the Rebbe, there was a brilliant and exceptionally perceptive chosid who clandestinely attempted to convince some of the wiser chassidim, that the Rebbe could possibly pass away, and that we will miss Mashiach’s arrival (if you need to believe you know who he is, which is the hepech of the hessech hadaas needed for his coming – but anyway…) in this swing of the history pendulum. It has happened before. The Zohar says (Breishis 139…) that by 1648 (in our count, 5408 in the Zohar) “…dror yihyeh ba’aretz…” and techiyas hameism will be happening already. What did happen was of course is history. The Holocaust before, and until our Holocaust, the raging and ravaging Chmeilnicki mobs.
Alas, it was etched in the Lubavitch shtuss of stone, that the Rebbe could not die. So essentially, the stone remains and, well, he didn’t really die.
Whenever the Rebbe said those things that were taken as him saying he was Mashiach, I stood there listening, understood it quite differently (example to follow) and was dismayed at what I knew everyone else was hearing. I had been influenced by this visionary chasid. He (the Rebb) said Mashiach is here. Open your eyes and you will see he is here. I was hearing him say “…there is a successor to take the mantle. Open your eyes and you will see him.” He was talking to the blind and the deaf. No eyes to open, and ears whose sensory waves were obstructed on their way to that part of the brain of daas – judgement/common sense.
The Rebbe rejoiced when the Lev Simcha was anointed as a successor to his brother, the Beis Yisroel. (The Rebbe would rejoice by gushing forth with Torah. He said a whole sichah about this succession!) There was hardly a Rebbe who was nistalek that the Rebbe did not stick his nose in (zai mir mochel Rebbe) to ensure that there was a succession. The Rebbe who would not (and it was obvious that he personally could not) take advice from anyone, this same Rebbe appointed a committee to draft a tzava’a, the most personal thing that anyone wants to do it “his way”, he gave to a committee of elders. (As it turns out, alteh shoytim.) WHY? Did it not occur to anyone that the request itself pointed to some type of desired result? Something he wanted but was not for him to write. (In Lubavitch a Rebbe never appoints a successor. Chassidim appoint, and there was only one instance in the whole dynasty where there was no question, and thus an immediate succession, because there was a ben yachid – the Rebbe Rayatz – and no sofek. In all other instances (in unrevised modern Lubavitch history) there was a period of consensus-consolidation.) To this wise chassid I mentioned, there was only one possibility – he wanted them to describe a system of establishing succession. They wrote one draft, he returned it with comments, and then a second, which was never heard of (by the klal) again. It was said that he didn’t sign it. End of story. It was not the end. He wrote an extremely sharp comment on the back, basically saying that you are leaving me with nothing to follow me. But yet again, as on so many occasions, he overestimated the sechel of the people. There are so many examples that it is impossible to document here, or in fact anywhere of value.
So, those Lubavitcher chassidim who have sweated it out here, with this chassid ben chassid ben chassid all the way back to the Tzemach Tzedek documented, and beyond speculated, you ask how can it be? The Rebbe misjudged his chassidim by overestimation? The answer is in the Chumash. Mah Hashem… what does Hashem want from you, says Moshe, ki im only to fear/respect him. Poshet pshat (before the deeper pshat of the Tanya) the Gemara asks, vechi yir’ah milsa zutresei? Is such a deep respect as to approach fear, a simple matter (as Moshe Rabbenu made it sound)? Yes, the Gemara answers, simple, to Moshe Rabbenu. For him this was no big deal, this very deep respect. The Gemara (Poshet Pshat rabboisay) says that for Moshe it was simple and he thus presented it as a simple and easy goal to accomplish. He overestimated the am.
Ay Rebbe, Rebbe, to overestimate is also part of chachamim hizaharu bedivreichem, shema…
To those looking from outside who still don’t get it about Lubavitch today, just remember this mass movement in Lubavitch (those who cannot imagine a chassid not seeing it their way) remember them when you say “tzon kodoshim” in hoshaanos. The greatest scholar among them, stood up on a table (bechayei haRebbi) and made such a stupid declaration (which so firmly anchored this whole notion) that what do we want from the sheep that follow? (He only distinguishes himself from Yeravam ben Nevat in that he did recant, and Yeravam didn’t. But how do you move an ocean liner anchored in mud with a recant? It was too late. And so, until there is a hessech hadaas, where all yiden haven’t a clue about when and where he is coming from (vechol shkeyn who he is) we must wait and accept the matzav kemoi shehi.
Menu