Loubavitch movement

Chabad Loubavitch , or Loubavich , is one of the broad branches of the Hassidisme rested by Rabbi Shneur Zalman de Liadi. It is also known under the term Habad (חב " ד) a Hebraic Acronym for " ח Sagesse- ב Compréhension- ד Savoir" , or Loubavitch (ליובאוויטש), of the name of the city having been used to him as general headquarter during nearly one century. In Russian, this name means " the city of the love fraternel".

Its members, or Hassidim Habad , still called Loubavitchs , are Juif S Haredim pertaining to the Judaism hassidic. In Israel one calls them also Habadnikim (" Habadniks"), a derivation of the second name of the movement.

Like all the orthodoxe Jews, they follow the precepts and habits of the Halakha (the Jewish law codified) taught by their clean Rebbeim (of Rabbi, Master), whose line starts with the founder of the Hassidisme, Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov and whose lesson is found in works major of Rabbi Shneur Zalman de Liadi: the Tanya and the Shulchan Aruch HaRav. In parallel, the chassidim attach an particular importance to the songs hassidic nigunim (melodies), accompanied or not by words, and also endeavor to follow the specific habits founded by their Masters.

Until disappearance in 1994 of the seventh leader of the movement, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, they are directed by a succession of Masters, all resulting from the line of the founder. The disappearance of their Rebbe causes a great shock among members of the movement, since much saw in him the Mashiach - the Jewish Messie - which was to appear in the world as tel. Schneerson was without descent and did not name of successor; the chassidim Chabad thus regard it still as their leader and Rebbe .

Origins

The Habad movement was born in Bielorussia in Europe from the East, and makes go up its origins with the whole beginning of the Judaïsme hassidic:

Rabbi Israel Ben Eliezer (1698 - 1760), known under the name of Baal Shem Tov (shortened in בעש " ט and meaning " Master Good Nom"). It installs its community incipient with Mezibush, in Ukraine.
Rabbi Dovber de Mezeritch (death in 1772), one of the largest disciples of Baal Shem Tov, expert in lurianic Cabal , succeeds to him its death with the head of the movement which will be known under the name of Hassidisme.

Rabbis de Loubavitch

Rabbi Shneur Zalman de Liadi 1745 - 1812, wire of the Rabbi Boruch, raises of Dovber de Mezeritch, and founder of the Chabad branch of the hassidism. It specifies the direction of its movement and influences the Hassidisme through its principal work the Tanya , which is primarily mystical and in the line of the Zohar, like its work on the Jewish Loi the Shulchan Aruch HaRav . He is recognized like Posek (rabbinical authority as regards Jewish Loi), and is often quoted in other important work such as the Mishnah Berurah and the Ben Ish Chai . The names " Schneersohn" and " Schneerson" are used like Patronymes by the descendants of Shneur Zalman. The first form of this name is " Shneuri" (Hebraic form of " Shneur"). It is transformed later into " Schneersohn".
Rabbi Dovber 1773 - 1827, wire of Shneur Zalman.
Rabbi Menachem Mendel 1789 - 1866, grandson of Shneur Zalman and son-in-law of Dovber.
Rabbi Shmuel 1834 - 1882, wire of Rabbi Menachem Mendel.
Rabbi Sholom Dovber 1860 - 1920, wire of Rabbi Shmuel.
Rabbi Joseph Isaac Schneersohn 1880 - 1950, only sons of Sholom Dovber.
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson 1902 - 1994, (the absence of the " h" towards the end of the name announces that it is resulting from another branch of the family), going down in paternal line (sixth generation) from Rabbi Menachem Mendel, and son-in-law of Joseph Isaac.

Origin of the names of the movement

The names Habad and Loubavitch have each one their history.

Chabad

Habad is a Hebrew Acronyme for Chochma (Wisdom), Bina (Comprehension), and Da' ace (To know), selected very early by the founder and first rabbi of the movement, Shneur Zalman de Liadi. The name Chabad reflects the intellectual accessibility of the mystical lesson of the Kabbale. Rabbi Shneur Zalman is the author of the work hassidic Tanya and the Shulchan Aruch Ha' Rav, a code of the law Juive.

Habad, sometimes written Chabad in English, has a transcription Phonétique in all the countries where Loubavitchs are present. Thus, Jabad is the Spanish form used also in Latin America, in particular in Argentine where the loubavitch presence is important.

Loubavitch

Loubavitch, name of a small town of Russia, means " city of the amour". The movement takes this name after the installation with Loubavitch of the son of Rabbi Shneur Zalman de Liadi, its founder. It is usual in the Hassidisme that a group draws its name from the town of Eastern Europe in which it is originating. Today, Loubavitchs attach an particular importance within the meaning of the name of their group because they see there a good definition of the spirit of the movement.

The movement at the time contemporary

With 19th and 20th centuries, Habad counts a big number of members in Russia and has a developed network of yeshivoth (religious schools) called Tomchei Temimim , that the governments Bolsheviks then the German invasion of 1942 almost entirely destroy. At the time of the Second world war, Rebbe, Joseph Isaac Schneersohn, lives with Warsaw. Thanks to the interventions in its favor of many personalities of the Jewish world, like with the collaboration of the Abwehr of the admiral Canaris (according to American Rigg Bryan Mark), it obtains the diplomatic immunity and can gain the the United States via Berlin and Rīga. It arrives at New York on March 19th 1940 and is fixed at, in the district of Brooklyn. His/her son-in-law and cousin Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who lives in Paris since 1933, joined it in 1941. Having taken the succession of his/her father-in-law, Menachem Mendel Schneerson undertakes the task that it bequeathed to him: to start a movement of " Return to Judaïsme" known under the name of Hazara bitchouva . It thus sends emissary (shluhim Habad) in the whole world to better do to know with the Jews of all sensitivities or religious affiliations their cultural and spiritual heritage as well as the Judaïsme of Habad.

In accordance with the wish of Rabbi Schneerson, Habad right now formed and certified thousands of Rabbin S, teachers, specialists in the ritual slaughter and circumcision, which work with the support of their wives and their - generally many - offspring for the education and the revival of the Judaism, encouraging the Jews of the whole world to imply itself more in their Religion, endeavouring to meet their spiritual needs, by recruiting a part within the movement. They launched the project Teshuva in which they continue to play a prevalent part. This project aims at bringing back to the religious practice the laymen and the indifferent ones. The Schneerson rabbi considers that it is capital to transmit the message of the imminent arrival of the machiah , the Messie. Here some points of its teaching:

the belief in the imminent arrival of the moshiach is an essential component of the Jewish religion, like taught it the Rambam.
Geula, “era of Redemption”, will be the culminating point of the spiritual work carried out since the creation of the world.
By applying the mitzvoth, a whole of 613 commands detailed in the Torah, the Jews prepare the advent of the Messie and the era of redemption.
For the not-Jews there exist seven main categories of mitzvoth, called laws of Noah, detailed in the work Voie of nice (not-Jew) the just . The Path off The Righteous Gentile.
It is capital to be opposed to any discussion aiming at giving territories of Holy Land (Israel) or other strategic territories to anyone, Arab or others.

When one asked him what remained to be made to prepare the advent of the Messie, the Schneerson Rabbi answered that it was necessary to practice “acts of Bonté and kindness”, phrases often begun again since. Rebbe wanted that any activity is made with the Conscience imminent arrival of the machiah . It is rare that an event organized by Habad included not wishes for the immediate arrival of the era of redemption.

The international general headquarter of the Chabad movement, located at No 770 of Eastern Parkway in the district of Crown Heights to Brooklyn, is simply called " 770" by Loubavitchs, which grants to this Nombre an important mystical significance .

On the initiative of the sixth rebbe, the chassidim do not carry the Chapeau bordered of fur called shtreimel , of rigor on certain occasions in the other hassidic movements . Another remarkable character of the movement is its opening to theorthodoxe ones, which he seeks besides to attract in orthodoxe mobility through a whole of actions (mitsvot), persuaded that will prepare the arrival of Messianic times.

Loubavitchs in France

The loubavitchers started to make feel their influence in France in the Sixties. They built a vast educational and sociocultural network in Île-de-France, with Lyon and Marseilles. They also practiced the Prosélytisme religious among the comparable Jews of France. It should be noted that the community habad of France is very mainly of origin Séfarade and not Ashkénaze.

Controversies

History

The Hassidisme causes as of its origins of many controversies within the Jewish unit. Its founder, rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, popular preacher and kabbalist, is little recognized rabbis making authority. Those are not long in reacting in front of the different interpretation which it made of the Torah and of the Halakha (Jewish laws). Carried out by rabbi Eliyahu de Vilna, also known like the Gaon de Vilna, they declare openly its opponents (mitnagdim) and show the hassidim erroneous interpretations of the texts.

With died of the Rabbi Dovber de Mezeritch, successor of Baal Shem Tov, the hassidism is divided into several branches. The chasidim recognize Shneur Zalman de Liadi like authentic successor of Rabbi Dovber de Mezritch. During its rabbinate and that of his/her Dovber son, the divergences between the hassidim and the mitnagdim intensify and multiply: since the rules controlling the ritual slaughter, while passing by the unfolding and the words of the Prayer S, they quickly extend to several fields from the ritual life . Rabbi Shneur Zalman and his partisans are the subject of prohibitions and of Persécution S. One day, a member of the mitnagdim informs the Russian government that its adversary encourages its disciples to send money in Palestine, then part of the Ottoman Empire in war against the Russia. Stopped for treason, Rabbi Shneur Zalman is released 19 from the month of Kislev, event considered by the chasidim as an effect of the divine intervention. They celebrate on this date the New year.

Thus, the controversies accompany by the beginnings until today the evolution of Habad, in spite of a short bringing together with the other movements hassidic and the mitnagdim during the rabbinate of Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, grandson of Shneur Zalman.

Controversies during the life of the seventh rabbi

The Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, seventh spiritual leader of Chabad and last rebbe of the movement to date, takes the head of it shortly after the end of the Second world war, time when much thinks the orthodoxe Judaïsme dying man. Rabbi Schneerson, for its part, believes in the imminent arrival of the Messie. In its speech of taking up the duties, he proclaims the guiding line of his rabbinate: its goal as a seventh rebbe is to complete the preparation of the arrival of the moshiach , so that its advent is achieved finally. Although its predecessor died before to have been able to achieve work, its exceptional spirit of sacrifice remains to guide the movement.

“Rebbe will bind us and will link us with the infinite divine Gasoline… When it delivers us exile with the raised hand, all the places where Jews are will fill of light… Can we have the privilege to see it and to meet it ici-bas in our physical bodies in this terrestrial world - and it will deliver us” (Basi Gani 1951).

The Schneerson rabbi rejects the isolationist traditional lifestyle as well as the way of the assimilation chosen by the majority of the Jews of the United States. He encourages the signs external of religiosity, like the long beards for the men or the wigs for the women. The practices of Chabad attract to him quickly in the Jewish community of the critics of all edges, liberals or traditionalists. Thus, the public celebrations at the time of the festival of Hanoucca, the attempts to encourage the Jews not practitioners to carry the Tefiline S (Phylactère S) and to adopt religious practices openly shock. In order to be able to expose publicly a Menorah (candlestick), the movement must go until in supreme court. Today still, controversies on the role of the " Rabbi" and the arrival of the Messie continue to make rage.

God, the rabbi and his disciples

Well before the death of the Rabbi Schneerson, the beliefs of the hassidim already are very disputed by the other orthodoxe groups. Like all the hassidim, they adhere to the mystical lesson of the Kabbale and grant a particularly important role to the tzadik (just or Saint), supposed to have an especially close relation with the divinity and to be able to make function of “Véhicule the Divine one” (מרכבהלשכנה), as well in this life as in the other. ('' Tanya '' epistle 27)

Contrary to many judaïques sources which insist on the fact that the Prière is addressed directly to God, the hassidism proposes the role of the tzadik like intermediary. All the hassidim see in their rebbe a tzadik agent of divine revelations. Thus, they often visit its tomb in search of blessing and continue to count on its intercession even after its death.

One is reminded that to them however they should not confuse it with God, whereas Schneerson declares: “ One cannot put question about like intermediary, because it is the gasoline of God Himself which was covered with a body humain ” (Likutei Sichos II: 510-511).

Schneerson considers that a tzadik , while obeying the orders of God accurately, destroys his personal heart in the union with the divine will, and that the words of the “saint” are divine words. (Pavzener, according to '' Tanya '' chapter 2).

It clearly expresses this point of view in the following passage: “In the same way that God, the Torah and the Juif S are a do not want to say that they are only bound, but mean that they do literally only one, Hassidim and their Rebbe are not two joined together entities but only one. Thus, for Hassid, him, its Rebbe and God do only one. ” This opinion, probably adopted by almost all the hassidim which, like all the hassidim, let their rabbis define the theology of the group, is always rejected like heretic by the other orthodoxe movements. As of the publication in 1780 of the first work hassidic, Toldot Yaakov Yosef , it is reproached the movement for being against the principles of the Judaïsme.

Forms of the messianism hassidic

The thought developed by Menahem Mendel Schneerson towards the end of its life is generally interpreted like a claim with being itself the Messiah, and it is besides as see it the majority of the chasidim the day before its Mort.

The development of this messianism and its impact on the orthodoxe Judaism and Habad in particular been the subject of many debates in the Jewish press and the specialized magazines. The conviction that late Menchem Mendel Schneerson is indeed the Messiah likely to return constantly is extremely widespread in the Habad community. Some among most important of the roshei (seniors) of yeshivas (judaïques schools) are opposed violently to this “canted” messianism which they name " meschichisme" . Thus the Rabbi Elazar Menachem Shach of the yeshiva Ponovezh (Israel), which condemned already this belief chassid the alive one of the Schneerson rabbi. The Shach rabbi is with the head of a group having a long story of divergences of opinion with Habad and the others hassidim in general, in spite of a close cooperation since the 20th century within organizations (Agoudat Israel p.ex.). Nevertheless, only Habad is the subject of attacks of its share.

The chassidim react in various ways to the Messianic proposal of their rabbi:

Some estimate that if Schneerson seemed well the best candidate of its generation to the role of Messie, it must from now on be obvious that it was not that waited, until God did not choose it although it had all necessary qualities. The true Messiah will possibly appear himself as another chief of the movement.
many chassidim believes that the usual concept of Mort does not apply to a truth tzadik (holy, just) such as Schneerson, to which the heart is closer to God than that of a ordinary Homme. They consider thus that their last rabbi did not die, but remains alive in an unperceivable way to human ordinary, and than it will appear again to proclaim his messianism. (see Mashiah Akhshav , volume IV, 1996 of Rabbi Levi Yitzchack Ginsberg, the yeshiva Kfar Chabad). Many thus refuses to make follow its Nom of the usual mark of respect to late (zt" L for Zecher Tzaddik Livrocho, " that memory of the right serf of bénédiction").

References

Dalfin, Chaim. Attack one Lubavitch: Except for Response , Jewish Enrichment, February 2002 (ISBN 1880880660)
Fishkoff, Known. The Rebbe' S Army: Inside the World off Chabad-Lubavitch , Schocken, 2003 (ISBN 0805241892)
Hoffman, Edward. Despite All Odds: The Story off Lubavitch . Simon & Schuster, 1991 (ISBN 0671677039)
Mindel, Nissan. The philosophy off Chabad . Chabad Research Center, 1973 (ASIN B00070MRV8)
Pavzener, Avraham. Al HaTzadikim (Hebrew). Kfar Chabad. 1991
Riemer, Jack. Will the Rebbe Return? . Moment Magazine February 2002.
Schneerson, Menachem Mendel. One the Gasoline off Chasidus: In Chasidic Discourse by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson off Chabad-Lubavitch . Merkos Inyonei Chinuch, 2003 (ISBN 0826604668)

See too

External bonds

American Official site of the Movement Loubavitch
Official site of Beth Loubavitch France
Hassidout.org All infos on the movement Loubavitch
Chabad-Lubavitch website
Butt the Lubavitcher Rebbe
Lubavitch News Service

Simple: Chabad-Lubavitch

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