16 years ago I was dragged by my father to Crown Heights for a funeral. I really had no idea who the Rebbe was at the time. When I saw a picture of him, I recognized as the same dude in the picture frame with a dollar bill on my uncles wall in Buffalo. Looking back, I find it kind of interesting that the only funeral of a gadol I have ever attended was the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s. This is even more interesting considering my father is a huge misnaged — more like someone who doesn’t like minhagim changed.
Like many people my father is very critical and very complimentary of Chabad at the same time. I know loads of people, including myself, that aren’t pleased with the Rebbe obsession. The hysterics and arrogance that goes in the Chabad movement – yet how can we really dislike a movement which has planted Torah (Rebbe) Judaism in some really far flung places, bringing sparks of kedusha down to where they may have never been before?
I remember my first time in Crown Heights for a Shabbos. I was there for my buddy Berel’s ufruf. His cousins were some pretty intellectual folks one of them being a doctor of sorts – yet they were the first people I have ever heard say to me without blinking that the Rebbe was still alive and was waiting to reveal himself as moshiach. When I told them that I was at his funeral, they asked me if I had seen the body. I have been to exactly one open casket funeral and the Rebbes was not it.
I was asked to write about the Rebbe, but you know what sucks? Thanks to the yellow flagger loonies that invaded Chabad in the 1980’s and have been relentless in their madness, I find it quite hard to write about the legacy of the Rebbe without talking about his tarnished reputation. Kudos to Chabad.org for showing they aren’t meshichists. I tried to write a sane post about the Rebbe and when it comes down it it I really couldn’t.
I have never been to the Rebbe’s kever (grave site) but I hear it’s a trip and a holy experience, so next time I’m around New York I plan on hitting it up. May the Rebbe rest in peace.
The concept that the Rebbe is still alive is the same as R’ Yehuda Hanusi who visited his wife friday nights after his passing. Did he die, like all men? Yes. Did they burry him and sit Shiva for him? Yes. But he came back down. That’s what most normal people believe. There are a few “yellow flaggers” who probably need more meds, but the concept is correct. A Tzaddik doesn’t really die, even when you bury his earthly body.
“He came back down”. What, like Jesus?
BS”D
While I am not chabad myself, I can certainly appreciate the work that they do the world over. The particular yeshiva I attended was very much anti-chabad, and sadly, it’s primarily due to the few moshiachniks. For a person to base their feelings of a group of people solely on the few, very vocal radicals is a very sad state of affairs. There are going to be crazy, outspoken people in every group, but what about the quiet masses? To base how you feel about the Rebbe on the few vocal moshiachniks is like basing how you feel towards Breslov chassidim on the Na Nach croud. There is a huge amount of good coming out of both of these organizations, but sadly, all anyone wants to talk about is the small vocal minority. You would think that after so many Jewish stereotypes throughout the ages we’d be less inclined to listen to the vocal minority.
They actually had a “viewing” before the funeral, so the whole “did you ever see the body” nonsense is just that.
I don’t buy this, where is your source , this doesn’t sound lile a jewish funeral
The source is me — I was actually there. I used the word “viewing” in quotes because there wasn’t an open casket with an embalmed body in the traditional sense. Instead there was a corpse wrapped in a talis lying on the floor of one of the rooms in 770. Men and boys were shuffled by in a hurried fashion so obviously I can’t confirm that the body was in fact that of the Rebbe, but I think it’s a fairly safe assumption.
I was there. We didnt see the body per say. We saw a body wrapped in a talis laying on the floor. Everyone was allowed to pass and see it. Not sure why they did it this way. Maybe it had something to do with wanting people to see for himself that our leader had indeed left the world in his human form.
i (female) was there so obviously women went too. i was told it was to ask mechila, a custom we do with the departed.
The shouts of “YeChi, YeChi, YeChi,” & “Melach HaMoshiach” always creeps me out. What might have been a great davening experience is tainted at the end by obvious similarities to various messianic groups (Jewish or not).
I think there’s a very important point that you haven’t mentioned: You say that when trying to speak about the Rebbe, people with Yellow Fever prevent you from further delving into his personality . . . in reality, however, you praise the Rebbe all the time on this blog. When you compliment Chabad and the Shluchim, when you appreciate all that they have to offer . . . All of that is the Rebbe! Shlichus was one of the Rebbe’s greatest gifts to the world, and it is a proccess that still grows and lives . . .
Only now are we able to even begin to glimpse at the potential of what the Rebbe gave us.
Next time you come to NYC, I’d love to go to the Ohel with you. You’re also invited for a shabbos meal at my house.
We’ve got a “regular” Chabad and a 150% Rebbe Chabad here. You can probably guess which one you can find me at on any given Friday night. Even I dont see eye to eye with the other one, I respect them making a Jewish environment available to people here in Tokyo.
The meshichist thing is unfortunate. I’ve oscillated back and forth, considering the relative merits of the yeshivish vs. the Chabad chassidic approach to Judaism. In the most hardcore yeshivish circles there is an incredible elitism–if you have not been priviliged to spend many years in yeshivah honing your Talmudic skills, you are a nobody. Chabad, and chassidism in general, in theory allow for less educated Jews to play their role, and to even occasionally be looked up to, as less emphasis is placed on intellectual brilliance, and more on avodas Hashem. This was emphasized by the Baal Shem tov, and is best exemplified by the Chabad approach to kiruv.
On the other hand, even if you spend many years learning in a Chabad yeshivah, plenty of Chabad families won’t set you up with their daughter, if you are BT.
Ostensibly yeshivish people are less prone to group think type fanaticism than Chassidm, because of their (talmudic) intellectual orientation. But with all the bans put forth by Chareidim in Israel, and the culture of daas torah getting out of hand in certain circles, I’m not sure they have that going for them.
There’s always the modern orthodox approach, but you have to sidestep the orthoprax/conservadox types who are only too ready to remake Judaism in their own image.
Good post!
love Chabad
the cult of the rebbe is not my favorite thing
that being said – the ohel can be crazy intense
My dad is buried in his cemetery so we’ve gone to his ohel as well. My brother drove a guy there yesterday and it was packed. Only night of the year that the cemetery is opened, to my knowledge.
Totally untrue. The Ohel is open all year round, and I have gone many times 10/11pm at night, to find at least a dozen people davening there.