Q&A: They drive me crazy to come to their events and donate to them. They seem to me not quite right in the head…
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
They drive me crazy to come to their events and donate to them. They seem to me not quite right in the head…
Question
Every year at the beginning of winter, the local Chabad guy here drives me crazy trying to get me to come to some celebration he holds in honor of the day one of their rebbes entered or got out of prison…
He’s a nice person, but he believes that his rebbe is still alive. [Unlike the rebbes before him and unlike rebbes from other sects.]
How am I supposed to relate to this whole weird hoopla?
And to the strange views about a certain man who died but is supposedly still alive?
Answer
There is no need to relate to it at all. It seems to me that your description fits the situation.
Once I asked a Chabad emissary what would happen if the Messiah came and it wasn’t their rebbe. He answered me, “Welcome.” I don’t know whether he’s a representative case. My feeling is that they miss him, and as the years go by he is gradually fading into the mists of time (I’m influenced here by The Lord of the Rings in Ruth Livni’s superb translation). And all that remains is to decide whether to go on being his emissary or not.