WE WANT MOSHIACH NOW! MOSHIACH WE WANT Nanna Rosengård: Messiah.”
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“When the Rebbe was alive, just about every Lubavitcher (---) was confident that he was the Nanna Rosengård: WE WANT MOSHIACH NOW! MOSHIACH WE WANT Nanna Rosengård: Messiah.” Is this sort of a belief a new phenomenon in the Chabad-Lubavitch movement or is there more to the story? Chabad-Lubavitch is a Jewish movement that has become well known both for its active outreach campaigns, bringing life to Jewish communites around the world, and their expectant belief in the Messiah. This belief is often WE WANT associated with Rabbi Schneerson, who MOSHIACH is said to be the Messiah by some NOW! Lubavitchers, and by scholars to have created a messianic fervor among his Understanding the adherents. The thesis at hand pinpoints Messianic Message the most important messianic beliefs put in the Jewish forward by the last two generations of Chabad-Lubavitch leaders in Chabad-Lubavitch, relating Movement them back to the first generations of the movement in the 1700s. Åbo Akademi University Press ISBN 978-951-765-514-9 Nanna Rosengård 2009 Photo: Ville Kavilo Ville Photo: Nanna Rosengård, was born 1978 in Stockholm, Sweden and grew up in Dagsmark, Kristinestad in Finland. She received a Masters of Theology from Åbo Akademi University 2005 and enrolled in the doctoral program of Jewish Studies the following year. Photo on front page taken by Nanna Rosengård in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York 2006. Design: Laura Karanko Åbo Akademi University Press Biskopsgatan 13, FIN-20500 ÅBO, Finland Tel. +258-20 786 1468 Fax +358-20 786 1459 E-mail: [email protected] http://www.abo.fi/stiftelsen/forlag Distribution: Oy Tibo-Trading Ab P.O.Box 33, FIN-21601 PARGAS, Finland Tel. +358-2 454 9200 Fax +358-2 454 9220 E-mail: [email protected] http://www.tibo.net WE WANT MOSHIACH NOW! We Want Moshiach Now! Understanding the Messianic Message in the Jewish Chabad-Lubavitch Movement Nanna Rosengård ÅBO 2009 ÅBO AKADEMIS FÖRLAG – ÅBO AKADEMI UNIVERSITY PRESS CIP Cataloguing in Publication Rosengård, Nanna We want Moshiach now! : understanding the Messianic message in the Jewish Chabad- Lubavitch movement / Nanna Rosengård. - Åbo : Åbo Akademi University Press, 2009. Diss.: Åbo Akademi University. ISBN 978-951-765- 514-9 ISBN 978-951-765-514-9 ISBN 978-951-765-515-6 (digital) UNIPRINT Åbo 2009 PREFACE Many people ask me what initially stirred my interest in the Lubavitchers and their eschatological program. The story is that in 2001 I was a volunteer with Sar-El (Service for Israel) in Israel, and as part of the program one could celebrate shabat and staying with families over the weekends. I stayed with a religious family in a moshav in the Rehovot area. They spoke substantially about rebuil- ding the temple and other things connected to eschatology, and I found their vibrant expectations very fascinating. That, together with an informative article on Chabad messianism by Rachel Elior, set me off. This work is dedicated to pappa and mamma , always there to offer support and whose interest in my work spurs me on. I would like to thank a lot of people who have aided me in various ways in the process of writing this thesis. I will not be able to mention all of you, but I do hope you have felt my appreciation, whoever you are! My gratitude goes primarily to my professor, Dr. Antti Laato, as well as to all the participants during the years at the graduate seminars. Thank you Pekka, Sinikka and Lorna, and all the friendly people who have been involved in finishing this project, among others Forskningsinstitutet , Laura and Ville. I appreciate it. I am also very grateful to my department, the department of Old Testament Exegesis and Judaic Studies, and the Finnish Graduate School of Theology for making my employment possible. My wish is that people from different disciplines and for different reasons will find this work interesting and helpful. Dagsmark, December 10 th , 2009 Nanna Rosengård Table of Contents 1. Introduction ............................................................. 9 1.1 Impacting the World for the Messiah ........................................ 9 1.2 Relevance, Purpose and Questions .......................................... 15 1.3 Theoretical Discussion, Methodology and Material ............... 20 1.4 Transliteration and Terminology ............................................. 27 2. Historical and Theological Background ........................................................................... 32 2.1 Hasidism ................................................................................. 32 2.2 Shneur Zalman and the Dynasty of Chabad ............................ 39 2.3 The Written Law of Chabad: The Tanya................................. 44 2.4 Messianism and Mysticism ..................................................... 50 2.5 Messianic Redemption in Hasidism ........................................ 58 2.6 Examples of Early Hasidic Messianic Activity ....................... 62 3. The Tanya and the Messianic Concept ...................................................................................... 70 3.1 The Worldview: Divinity and Creation ............................... 72 3.1.1 God – Present in Everything............................................ 72 3.1.2 The World – Not Yet a Place for God ............................. 75 3.1.3 Man and His Significance for the Messianic Course of Events ....................................................................................... 80 3.1.4 Means of Uniting with God ............................................. 91 3.1.5 The Purpose of Creation: The Messianic Era .................. 95 3.2 The Zaddik: Linking Heaven and Earth ........................... 101 3.2.1 A Very Special Person, Executing Influence Not Only On Earth ....................................................................................... 101 3.2.2 Ecstatic Praying ............................................................. 105 3.2.3 Converting Evil into Holiness ....................................... 108 3.2.4 The Ascent of Souls ...................................................... 110 3.3 Summary and Discussion ................................................... 113 4. Acute Messianic Awareness in the 20 th Century ..................................................................................... 120 4.1 The Message of Rabbi Joseph Isaac ................................... 123 - 4.1.1 Finding Strength despite the Messianic Birthpangs ....... 126 4.1.2 A Spiritual War – Repentance ....................................... 132 4.1.3 Meriting the Coming of the Messiah ............................. 138 4.1.4 Taking action ................................................................. 143 4.1.5 Summary and Conclusions ............................................ 146 4.2 The Message of Rabbi Schneerson ..................................... 150 4.2.1 The Last Generation Before the Messianic Era ............. 154 4.2.2 Exile, Repentance and Messianic Redemption .............. 159 4.2.3 The Messiah ................................................................... 164 4.2.4 Anticipating the Coming of the Messiah and Redemption ................................................................................................ 171 4.2.5 Everybody’s Responsibility in Hastening the Coming of the Messiah ............................................................................. 172 4.2.6 The Messianic Significance in Studying the Torah and Spreading Hasidic Teachings .................................................. 180 4.2.7 Summary and discussion................................................ 186 5. Conclusions ................................................................... 189 Bibliography ........................................................................ 204 Chabad-Lubavitch Literature .................................................. 204 Secondary Literature ............................................................... 208 Magazines ............................................................................... 216 Online Material ....................................................................... 216 9 1. Introduction 1.1 Impacting the World for the Messiah ”When the Rebbe was alive, just about every Lubavitcher (---) was confident that he was the Messiah.” 1 The messianic concept of the Jewish ultra-Orthodox group of Chabad- Lubavitch is of primary interest in this study. Being one of the most visible of the Jewish groups today, Chabad-Lubavitch transforms Jewish communities all over the world. Small communities seem to come alive through the work of emissaries, sent out to every corner of the earth where there may be Jews with a mission to rekindle the Jewish faith. 2 The movement is well-known for its outreach, called “Lubavitch activism” and purported by insiders to have the purpose of “strengthen[ing] the Jewish identity and religious consciousness,”. 3 In addition to the visibility of this ultra-Orthodox group, the movement is 1 New York Times Magazine , September 21, 2003 2 National Geographic , February 2006:66, 68 3 Schochet 1995 III:183 10 also connected to a strong devotion for its deceased leader, Rabbi Menahem Mendel Schneerson. Banners proclaiming Rabbi Schneer- son the Messiah can be seen in places with a large population of Lubavitchers, such as Jerusalem and Crown Heights in New York. In other parts of the world this feature of the Lubavitchers may not always be as evident, but, as will become evident in this work, Lubavitch activism cannot be separated from the expectant belief