We are all Chabadniks now, says Ron
Coleman. The missionary-minded Chabad
movement rubs many people the wrong way, people who long for a world in which there are no missionaries, a world in there is nothing to live or die for, and no religion, too. But I was raised on the slogan that you are a missionary in life, or you are nothing at all. Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg ran the Chabad center in Mumbai, a synagogue and community house, one of about 3,500
such outposts around the world established by Lubavitcher Hasidim. Without a doubt, the
terrorists went out of their way to target the center and kill the rabbi and his wife out
of hatred of Jews. For details, go here.
The question to pose to the perpetrators, sympathizers, and excusers of such a crime is the same question God is reported to pose in Bereishit (Gen 4:9):
אֵי הֶבֶל אָחִיךָ
Where is Abel your
brother?
The ancient Israelites believed in life after
death, but positive expectations about post-mortem existence, however logical that would have been
given belief in a benevolent and all-powerful God, were slow in coming.
The earliest clear witness to a positive hope
is found in the late Persian period or perhaps early Hellenistic period, in
components of 1 Enoch. Belief in the assumption into heaven
of Enoch, Elijah, and possibly Moses probably goes back earlier.
Awareness or perception of post-mortem existence (necromancy also depended on assuming such), belief
in the necessity of justice, and the conviction that God answers prayer combined
to suggest that the prayers of the innocent dead might be answered by a
vindicating God.
So we pray, though we may consider ourselves unbelievers, "along with" Gavriel and Rivka, in the words of Job (16:18):
אֶרֶץ אַל־תְּכַסִּי דָמִי
וְאַל־יְהִי מָקוֹם לְזַעֲקָתִי
Earth!!! Do not cover my
blood!
Let there be no halt to
my outcry!
"Along with": just a metaphor, or a metaphor that conveys a truth the contours of which we can only dimly understand?
I realize some Jews will have a hard time understanding
it, but a Christian like me feels a certain affinity for Chabad and Chabad Messianism. The vibrance, passion, and warmth of Chassidic
spirituality, its sense of the unity of all things, the belief in miracles and continuing revelation, the immediacy with which a passage from the Bible is
connected to another, and then another - I share all of these things with a
Chabadnik, and do not share them with many of my fellow Christians.
Another rabbi, Leibish Teitelbaum, and Bentzion Chroman, a believer known for his joyous disposition, also perished in the attack. Bentzion died in the act of Talmud Torah. Details here.
Converts to Judaism are naturally attracted to Chassidus. For a conversation between a
convert and a Chassidic rebbe, go here. Below, a photo of 28 year-old Rivky inaugurating a miqvah, or ritual bath, possibly the first ever in Mumbai. May the center rise again from its wreckage.
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