The Rebbe: The Life and Afterlife of Menachem Mendel Schneerson

I heard of the Rebbe for the first time later in life; in the year 2008 to be exact. At the time (and mainly still today) I was heavily engulfed into Judeo-Christianity; that is for me, believing in the Christian faith but with a full appreciation for Judaism (although one can argue whether they were actually meant to be separate). Along with this was a heavy interest in the concept of the Messiah. In fact, the Messiah in my view was the most important concept in Judaism/Christianity. This night in 2008 while listening to FM radio, I became bored of the same mainstream stations and decided to flip over to AM. In doing so, I discovered an Orthodox Jewish show broadcasted in the NY/NJ area.The host of the show just happened to be interviewing two women who virtually deified this Rebbe character they spoke of. One of the women stated that the Rebbe had died, rose from the dead, came to her while she was having an operation in the hospital (he appeared invisibly as per her), healed her, showed himself to his followers, went back to heaven and would return to judge the world. I almost dropped my radio! I couldn’t believe what I was hearing! For years I had only heard from members in the Jewish community that the Messiah would be a political figure, working through diplomatic means to bring world peace. Unlike Christians and quite honestly first century Jews who believed in a divine Messiah.This book attempts to break down how the Rebbe became the “Messiah” in the eyes of his Brooklyn NY Lubavitcher followers and shluchim (emissaries). By covering the early beginnings of the Rebbe from his secular ambitions up until the death of his father and sixth Rebbe Joseph Isaac, one is able to witness the conversion from college student to wise rabbinical figure. My only real question since 2008 has only ever been though, did the Rebbe claim to be the Messiah?The night of the radio show I heard did not end with the glowing commentary of the host’s guests. Callers were patched in and at times were vehemently at odds with the guests on the messiahship of the Rebbe. So clearly, a schism existed as this biography also covers. Although the authors clearly point to the Rebbe’s followers as the inventors of the Rebbe as King Messiah, they point to the Rebbe’s lack of denial of this grand title as well. In fact, the authors assert that at times the Rebbe wanted his followers to think he was the Messiah, without overtly referring to himself as such.What I like most about this biography is that it isn’t a hagiography. That is, it doesn’t place a halo around the head of the Rebbe as other biographies on the Rebbe seem to. It attempts to view the Rebbe from a historical and fact based standpoint without the legendary tales that often surround him. Here, he is stripped of any Davy Crockett-like heroism and reduced to a human being who was just as finite as any of us. I had hoped though that the authors could better pin point who was actually responsible for the Rebbe’s messianic title since some say he himself claimed it, while others placed the blame squarely on misinterpretation of his words. In any event, I find the entire situation interesting and I am glad that there were authors willing to cover this controversial figure and the community that adored him.

Since I have had meaningful contact with Chabad for over forty years, I found the Heilman-Friedman book on the Rebbe to be facinating--well written and well researched--and it helped put together all kinds of things concerning the history of Chabad and the life of the Rebbe that I had guessed at, but was never really sure were true. I was therefore surprised and taken aback by the intense controversy the book has generated and I have read carefully all the reviews I could find in the mainline Jewish press and now the eighteen in Amazon--which, as of today, are oddly balanced between nine positive and nine negative points of view. What I find so striking among most of the negative one-star reviews, is the sense of scorn with which they treat the authors--as if they had an axe to grind and deliberately set out to belittle the Rebbe's name--one even refers to Heilman and Friedman as "con men." In contrast, all the five and four star reviews are thoughtful and find the book--"despite any shortcomings"--to be an illuminating experience--"humanizing" the Rebbe--which in turn, makes him a far more impressive figure than the myth-like personage depicted by so many of his followers. One of the four star reviews (Daniel B. Schwartz) says something with which I strongly agree--something that separates me from the Rebbe's worshipful Chabad followers and defenders. "Like a Greek tragic hero, the Rebbe's greatest strength, his self confidence and ambition to save the world, proved his ultimate historical downfall..." For me, at least, the Rebbe as "tragic hero," is a far more illuminating way of seeing his legacy than as the actual or erstwhile "Moshiach" that so many of his following seem to dream about.As a guide to those who'd like to delve deeper, I'd refer them to the reviews in the book's website: [...] -both positive and negative. On the negative side, if one has the patience to wade through a prodigiously footnoted forty-five page critique, look at Rabbi Chaim Rapoport's essay in the Seforim blog, along with three responses from the authors. Whatever errors the book may contain--and every first biography makes mistakes--they certainly are not the result of malice as Rapoport frequently implies. A far more interesting critical response was written by Zalman Alpert in the [...] blog. Alpert, who appears to be a knowledgeable insider/outsider, raises some important issues and contemporary developments, that he feels were left out of the book--but which I would think could be the subject of two additional volumes. Despite his criticism of any errors and omissions, he seems to be disturbed by the tone of several of the negative reviews: "This book is hardly anti-Lubavitch. I think it paints a very evenhanded portrayal of the Rebbe's life. Parts ...are clearly very favorable to the Rebbe, other parts present him as a human who was undergoing change as he got older and circumstances changed. Yet why the long negative reviews of the book? ... Clearly the chapter about the Rebbe in Berlin and Paris...does not warrant a forty page response...I think the answer is clear...these reviewers [such as Rabbis Boteach and Rapoport] would not be happy with anything less than a propaganda work about the Rebbe the like of which their own press churns out on a regular basis...that is sad because [these two reviewers] are intelligent and likeable people, yet they are caught up in the cult around the Rebbe..." I would add that the "official" or "unofficial" attack by Chabad loyalists seems to me to be seriously misguided and counter-productive, since in the end their desired "larger than life" portrait of the Rebbe, will only diminish both him and the impressive, but sometimes mixed fruits of his labor of love and attempted redemption. If they were wise, they would simply sit out the controversy, and "kvel" that two serious non- Lubavitch scholars have paid so much positive attention to their illustrious leader.Let me end by highlighting one unusual and especially brilliant review by Adam Kirsch which appeared in the on-line Tablet (July 20), entitled "American Messiah." After going over the book's contents and major thesis, Kirsch uses remarks by Kafka, Walter Benjamin and Franz Rosenzweig to highlight the paradoxical nature of messianism as a constant and central Jewish idea. He ends with quotes from Eliot Wolfson's recently published profound but dense study of the Rebbe's thought, Open Secret. This is followed by many responses to the blog, among them two long comments by Wolfson himself, further enumerating his rather startling thesis. Any first biography that can stimulate this kind of discussion is certainly worth reading, despite any revisions that the Rebbe's future biographers might choose to make.

GOOD

Excellent background information on the Rebbe and the Chabad movement. Well worth reading for anyone interested in the Chabad messianic views.