@DaasYochid,
“2 – what do you think betten means ?, when we write to the rebbe we write on the first line Ana liorer rachamim rabim avuri…
That question has been asked here, but we haven’t gotten a straight answer. If it merely means to ask the Rebbe to daven on your behalf, there’s no kashya to address. Nobody has a problem with that.”
Let me make this very clear. I, and all other Chabad Chassidim, do not daven to the Rebbe. Betten a Rebbe, is exactly what Joe explained, asking a Rebbe to intercede on ones behalf, as we write in a Pidyon Nefesh, or “Pa”n”, אנא לעורר רחמים רבים עבורי. This idea is by no means exclusive to Chassidus Chabad. Kalev went to Kivrei Avos to daven, and ask the Avos to intercede on their behalf.
The Mahram Shick, a Talmid of the Chasam Sofer, discussed this very question; how may one ask any Tzadik, living or dead, to daven on his behalf. For if a Yid cannot make an intermediary between himself and the Aibershter, how may we ask another Yid to beseech Hashem on our behalf?
The Mahram Shick explains this apparent anomaly in the name of his teacher, the Chasam Sofer: When one Yid approaches another and tells of the pain he is suffering, the other Yid feels it just as he does. Now they are both in need of Tefila. The Yid does not feel he is davening for an “other”–he is davening for himself.
In other words, all Yidden can be considered as one body. If the toe is hurting, it needs the head and the heart to help it. So too, if I am in need, I can call upon all other Yidden—and especially those who are the head and the heart of our people—to daven for me as well. Because if one Yid is hurting, we are all hurting.
Mahram Shik then extends this to the deceased, as well. According to the Gemara and the Zohar, those Tzadikim who have passed on from this world are still very much in touch with their Talmidim and family and care for them and their problems.
See Tshuvos Mahram Shick, Orach Chayim, 293.