Reply To: The world is in a state of Geula- and don’t misunderstand us!

No political, Rso ( I think my reply to him addresses your post as well):

“Once a person has chosen to believe that a certain person is a Tzadik who has no Yetzer HaRah and any of his statements are a direct expression of Divine Will no further discussion (on any matter pertaining to the Tzadik or his teachings) is possible. The strength of such a belief is precisely in the fact that no positive evidence is presented for it and therefore there is nothing to refute. Instead the focus is on wonderous and miraculous stories about the Tzadik.”

OK I can see where you base your assumption non political as I have heavily emphasised the miracles and ruach hakodesh aspect to show that the Rebbe was not a regular person/ Rav (or tzadik as per non lubavitch perlance).

But I was writing that assuming we shared a certain common knowledge or ground which I now see is lacking. So I’ll back up.

If someone random came to town and performed wonders while saying strange things that no one else said, I’d agree with your post above. But that’s not the case.

The Rebbe from his childhood on, was not typical (in an attempt at brevity I’ll leave it at that, I can elaborate more if wanted.)

By the time he arrived in America in 1940, and the Frierdiker Rebbe sent chassidim to greet him at the port here was where he was holding, by the Frierdiker Rebbes description: “My son in law knows the entire shas with Tosfos, Rosh and Ran as well as all printed chassidishe seforim.”

The Rebbes tremendous knowledge of Torah is evident by his Farbrengens, where he would sit for hours on end, quoting from kol HaTorah Jul by heart with no notes, a fact that greatly impressed Rabbi JB Soloveitchik zatzal.

The chassidim got to know the Rebbe and see how he was careful with every detail in halacha as would of course be expected from such a tremendous gaon.

Not just chassidim, people from all walks who met the Rebbe beforehand knew he was a very special young man and a tremendous gaon.

That all went without saying. Within lubavitch, it is impressive to be a tremendous gaon, but we’re not overly impressed if it’s something the average person could do, with the time and investment put into it. We have plenty of very learned people within lubavitch, Geonim (by today’s standard for sure) etc, not like the Rebbe of course, that’s highly unusual, but very learned people. We respect them off course, we stand up when they come in, respectfully ask them on halacha and hashkafa, consider it an honour to marry in to their families and spend time around them – at their shabbos tables etc.

We have tens of people like this within lubavitch. But we are not overly impressed with them, although we respect them greatly, because we know they are still regular people like me and young, just much farther along avoda wise

And this is the respect I see paid by other chassidim and litvaks to their own Roshei Yeshivos Rabbanim Rebbe’s etc for the most part.

How do you know if someone is not normal? Has reached a spiritual height that is out of your league but precisely because of that can help you in ways the “regular” Rabbanim etc can’t?

When you see evidence that aside from all the above (which goes without saying, otherwise what are you even proving), they can sense and see things normal people can’t. They can read thoughts and see straight into ones soul. That’s what u mean by that proof.meaning its proof that the Rebbe is beyond our league. I can finish shas three times and still be as far from that as I am now. It’s simply a different status- a tzadik of Tanya.

Btw rso, thinking of it, there were contemporary Tzaddikim who manifested these signs as well, amongst them, the Gerrer Rebbe, who had ruach hakodesh. The Baba Sali. And one that may surprise you, the Satmar Rebbe Reb Yoel who sharply disagreed with the Rebbe in regards to the approach towards eretz Yisrael etc.

But as their chassidim treated them as tzaddikim of the Tanya (and I’ve also heard ruach hakodesh stories about the former two myself) we also regard them with great respect due to a tzadik of Tanya. With regards to Reb Yoel, while we of course hold by our Rebbes shitta, we would never put ourselves on the same footing as Reb Yoel and say things like “in my opinion he makes no sense (because of course I understand Torah better than him) and he is wrong.” Cvs that’s disrespecting Talmidei chachamim.rather we would either cite our Rebbes view on the matter, or see in his own words where he may have misunderstood our shitta. That’s where I say that expect the same from you rso. You can hold higher of your own Rebbe, but until you also know kol HaTorah Baal peh inside out yourself, don’t think you can put your understanding of nigle on the Rebbe’s level. You can say his chassidim haven’t understood this matter to the extent that satisfies me, or I don’t understand how the Rebbe’s statement here is in line with this mishna here etc. But to put yourself on the same footing and speak dismissively of the Rebbe – that is a problem