First off, I must protest citing Rabbi Dr. Berger as only Dr, leaving off the fact that he is a Rabbi. He does have semicha, and should be recognized as such.
Joseph, I really don’t care whether you believe me or not, and I don’t care if you think my refusal to name the Rav means he’s not legitimate. I can assure you that he’s a widely respected, yeshivish Rav in Brooklyn. I just don’t want to put his name here, because I’ve never heard him say it publicly, other than when I heard him say it in Yeshiva.
I know that he told us he heard the same thing from a major Rav – I seem to remember that it was either R’ Belsky or R’ Reisman. Given Avira’s knowledge of R’ Belsky’s views, I would assume it was R’ Reisman. It was 20+ years ago, so I may be mistaken about that part.
I will say that yes, there was a time when I wouldn’t count a meshichist towards a minyan. I don’t automatically assume that every Chabadnik is a meshichist, but this person happens to have a sign on the front of his house, with a picture of the Rebbe, and the words “Moreinu melech hamashiach chai v’kayam!” We had 9 people waiting for a 10th and he walked in. I claimed I needed the bathroom before we could start and walked out. Another person walked in a minute later, so I walked back in and we started davening.
Joseph, you claimed that R’ Shach did not hold of the position. R’ Shach said that the Rebbe’s statement about a Rebbe being God clothed in a human body was Avodah Zara. He compared Chabad chassidim to followers of Shabtai Zvi. He called the Rebbe “the madman who sits in New York and drives the whole world crazy”.
His students won’t eat Lubavitch shechitah, claiming that they’re not frum Jews.
Do you really want to claim that R’ Shach didn’t hold of the views?