“I noted earlier that chassidus Chabad has a history that dates back many generations of deifying their leaders.”
TLIK,
You’re absolutely correct. The sefer “Ashkavta D’Rebbe”, written by Rabbi Moshe Dovber Rivkin about the passing of the Rebbe Rashab, zt”l in 1920, records that Lubavitcher Kohanim deliberately came into forbidden contact with the niftar. They did so because they interpreted the phrase “Yakov Avinu Lo Meis” literally and then applied it to their Rebbe.
The followers of no other movement, whether Chassidim or Misnagdim, Ashkenazim or Sefardim, have ever acted in this shocking manner. So unfortunately, this kind of nutty deification is nothing new to them.
Bottom line, Chabad can loudly make whatever twisted arguments they’d like about the Rebbe being the Messiah. The rest of the Jewish world will NEVER accept it.
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