Ortho, if you need to dig for a sefer that’s not readily available in a fully stocked chasidishe beis medrash, then it begs the question…why is this not known in rizhiner circles, or any non chabad messianic circles? Why is this sefer so hard to find that ltzar hachochma only quotes someone who says it without the original? I personally don’t have otzar hachochma. My beis medrash used to, my current one does not; I’ll give it a look when i get a chance, but the words really don’t sound authentic. They’re not in the style of sifrei chasidus; they appear written by a current day person; but I’ll accept it if it can be shown to be authentic.
What i will not accept is the assertion that this belief is common in rizhiner related chasidusen. Go to a beis medrash anywhere, in the states or eretz yisroel, and find a rebbe, magid shiur, or even an educated yungerman who has heard of this – you won’t. Because it’s a completely unheard-of idea.
Im not defining gedolim. I said that shabsai tzvi and the other names you mentioned are not valid; what did you attempt to prove from their existence? They only show that there are deviant movements in the jewish community, and that they don’t last very long. Chabad will join that list pretty soon, as it’s been around 30 years. I give the messianics about 10 more years before it branches off into people who totally reject messianism, embrace normative judaism with their chasidus, and those who go the way of shabsai tzvi, and create a new, short lived movement of weirdos, just like shabsai tzvi, frank, dovid alroi(who i had never heard of – thanks for the history lesson)
As for rabbi zev leff; not every rov, talmid chacham, rosh yeshiva, etc…are known to be gedolei yisroel. Lakewood is full of 38 year old roshei yeshiva and kollelim; they’re not all gedolim. The term might be subjective, but we all know one when we see one, and rav leff has not done what gedolei yisroel are known for. He’s a rov and a fine person, but he’s not baal habayis on yiddishkeit, and he is not a spokesperson for the Yeshiva world…and he’d be the first person to tell you that. A Lubavitcher chossid has as much business telling litvishe who our gedolim are as we do telling a Lubavitcher which rebbe of theirs was bigger or who they should consider gedolim; i don’t know much about chabad beyond my learning tanya, some likutei torah, and a few pieces from the rashab.
But i do know what the non chabad gedolim said about the last Lubavitcher rebbe, and they were qualified to do so. I also know many rabbonim who left chabad when he took over, including rav nesanel quinn, and many in Yerushalayim.