Amusing slice of life
Yep, they’re the local loonies. Still, as crazy fundies go? You rather have them as neighbors, or the Phelpses?
They feel Schneerson is the messiah? Well, they’re wrong, objectively, by the tenets of mainstream judiasm, but there are worse things to be wrong about. At least they’re having fun with it.
I thought that only a small segment of Lubavitchers believe Schneerson is the messiah. The rest are, comparatively, sane.
Nobody really knows how to quantify how many Lubavitch people are messianists, but I will say that in the (admittedly nonrandom) sample of those I know or have met, the majority of them are, some more publicly than others.
You mean this tiny group is already undergoing a schism?
You kidding? The Hasidim are all about schisms. Their schisms have schisms.
You really need to read Boychiks in the Hood.
Far as I can tell, most of them think he’s the messiah. Just some are more public about it than others.
But yeah, get two jews in a room, you got three sides of an argument. Just because it’s an old joke doesn’t make it any less true.
People don’t really realize how wild the Hasidim can get. Lots of people just assume they’re like a Jewish version of Catholic monks - old guys with big beards who sit around all day and pray.
The truth is that Hasidism started out as a youth-rebellion movement. Jews in Poland and Lithuania who had undergone decades of suppression by the government became discontent with the Orthodox Rabbis of their communities, viewing them as the old establishment that needed to be torn down. Early Hasidim would have all-night rituals where they’d drink massive amounts of wine and liquor, and literally dance, jump around, and spin in circles until they worked themselves up into a trance, and would shout out stream-of-consciousness prayers, like the “speaking in tongues” that the Pentecostals are known for. It was, for its time, a totally far-out thing, almost like the hippie movement of the 1960s.
(I learned all of this from a very, very knowledgeable professor of Jewish history, years ago. It was quite an enlightening class.)
The Hasidic Jews’ culture is extremely far-out. It’s just that very few people really know about it, beyond the superficial appearances of the guys in black coats.
It’s an oversimplification, but if I ever have to try to explain Hassidism or Sufism, it’s easy & to-the-point to say, “Well, imagine Pentecostal Orthodox Jews or Muslims.”
I think you’re getting the Lubavitch sect mixed up with the general group/movement of Chassidim. All Lubavitchers are Chassidish, but not all Chassidim are Lubavitch.
There are dozens of different Chassidic sects whose beliefs about the Messiah vary as much as the design of their hats, but as far as I am aware, only the Lubavitch sect believes that Schneerson is the Messaiah.
Not all Lubavitchers believe that the departed Lubavitcher Rebbe is/was the Messiah, either. There’s a definite schism within the group, and I know people on both sides.
FriarTed, if Hasidim are the Pentacostal Jews, what does that make us ordinary Orthodox folk? Baptists?
Sometimes, one really gets to missing the old Happy Jewish Guy smiley
Don’t be silly. It doesn’t make you Baptists.
It makes you either Catholic or, ironically enough, Orthodox.
Y’know, I often say “If Judaism isn’t fun, you’re doing it wrong.”