Eli Y: “The idea of a picture of the Rebbe under a pillow at the Bris does not trouble most of us at all although no-one believes that this act in itself will somehow affect the life of the child. Most would view the behavior in the same way one may put a picture of a deceased grandfather in the same position.”
I have never heard of anyone putting a picture of a relative – alive or dead – under a child’s head at a bris. And I would have the exact same objection if they did.
I believe that no one has answered my question as to where opening the igros at random originated and who said that it has any meaning at all. It certainly wasn’t the lubavitcher rebbe, so who had the authority to say that the following the answers/instructions one allegedly receives is correct according to Torah.
And please don’t compare this with stories of tzaddikim who recommended that questions be placed in seforim of earlier tzaddikim. I’ve heard all this before, and there is no comparison. In those cases there was no “reply” received from the page opened at random, and it was done as bringing the letter to a source of kedushah.
There is of course the famous Goral Hagra, but that was instituted by the Gra himself, not by someone who missed him greatly.