beard-pulling update: are lubavitch a bunch of messianic heretics, or what?

it appears that the mainstream orthodox rabbinical council of america has picked a fight with the powerful chabad / lubavitch movement over the perennial problem about whether the last lubavitcher rebbe is dead, or the messiah, or both, or what. obviously, there is a slight problem with jews who start believing that the messiah has already come if the relevant prophecies haven’t been fulfilled. similarly, if the messiah in question hasn’t rebuilt the Temple, hasn’t ingathered the exiles of the jewish people or has, in fact, shuffled off this mortal coil and run down the curtain to join the choir invisibule, but his followers start coming out with terms like “occultation” and claiming he isn’t really dead and has Divine powers, G!D forbid, it does start to look a tiny bit like, well, er, christianity.

king messiah, or ex-parrot?

of course, the official chabad line on this is that they’re not in fact messianic and that messianic chabadniks are a small minority. some would beg to disagree. in fact, the jc offers a piece of analysis from my very favourite mainstream wiseacre, the egregious rabbi yitzhak “marry a jew” shochet, to show why the precise formulation of the affirmation demanded by the rca offers ample opportunity for a bit of hasidic taqqiyah. r. shochet, of course, is the  best friend of every parent in the matilda marks primary school catchment area, whose appallingly smug and arrogant “ask the rabbi” column in the jewish news, the cause of much friday night swearing in the bananabrain household, was memorably and accurately caricatured on the satirical jewdas website (not something i generally endorse, however).

the amusing thing is, of course, that r. shochet’s analysis appears to rest not upon the fidgy-widginess of whether chabad can sign up to the non-messianic affirmation required in good conscience, or not, but upon the contention that:

“Allegiance to the “Thirteen Principles of the Faith” does not matter, and all the serious problems afflicting Jews and Judaism are not of primary concern. They are not as important, and will not provide the headlines, as inventing and prosecuting alleged heresies. This is certainly an intriguing agenda for a rabbinical organisation.”

can we now expect r. shochet to drop his long-standing objection to the non-orthodox communities, whose non-adherence to the thirteen principles is generally considered as indicative of their heretical status? in fact, can we now look forward to a proper debate on the misappropriation of maimonidean dogmatic theology by the guardians of “Torah judaism”? is he prepared to have an honest look at whether maimonides actually meant what modern orthodoxies of every stripe say he meant, given that his positions aroused astonishing controversy at the time and were themselves condemned numerous times for heresy? can we now expect the united synagogue to cease prosecuting the non-orthodox movements for their “alleged heresies”?

i doubt it – but we shouldn’t let our antipathy to chabad stand in the way of hypocrisy, should we?