Moshe Ben-Chaim
Reader: By the grace of G-d. Shalom u’Brocha! Perhaps you have no obligation to believe the Lubavitcher Rebbe or the Besht were prophets, but those who witnessed their prophecies and miracles have such an obligation. Brocha ve’hatzlocha! Ariel
Mesora: First off, let me offer you a sampling of reality regarding the Rebbe: a close friend went to the Rebbe and asked him a question about the condition of her sick relative. The Rebbe told her that her relative would live, but she died. The Rebbe was wrong. All humans are bereft of absolute knowledge, and of future events.
Furthermore, to suggest the Rebbe, the Besht or anyone is a prophet, never having produced the Torah’s required proofs of prophecy; you display a severe lack of adherence to the Torah, which destroys Torah. For you will most certainly follow your self-proclamation of their prophecy with the view that “all they said is Torah.” Suggesting man is infallible and is always speaking “prophetic truths” leads many astray. These men were never proven as prophets, so your claim exposes you as a very poor judge of Torah principles. Based on God’s words, we do not accept what an unproven prophet speaks, lest he mislead Jews from God. So until a man produces the phenomenon required by Torah to be a prophet, he is not considered one. You seem to be living in a fantasy world, simply to maintain your idols as leaders of “holy” status. Be mindful: when Moses died, the Jews accepted his death. They did not say he was returning. So why do you place your Rebbe higher than Moses?
I visited your website
“www.kingmessiah.com” where under a picture of the most recent Lubavitcher
Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, you write, “The Lubavitcher Rebbe - King Messiah may he live
for ever”. You feel the Rebbe is Moshiach, but he never satisfied any
requirements that he might be considered the messiah. Your credibility as a
voice of Torah is thereby completely stripped from you. But the most disgusting
element of your website is where you encourage others to violate a Torah prohibition
of consulting the dead, where you write, “Write to the Rebbe and Behold
Miracles.” You openly tell Jews they may consult the dead, and that they will
receive miracles. You are no different than a devout Christian waiting for
Jesus to perform miracles from HIS grave. You do not practice Judaism, but
idolatry. We just celebrated our liberation from the idolatrous, Egyptian
culture, but you intend to return the Jews to the Egyptians’ primitivism.
In contrast, what is accurate Torah? What does God say? God tells us “[do not] inquire of the dead. For it is an abomination to God, all who do such things, and on account of these abominations, Hashem your God wiped them out from before you.” (Deut. 18:11,12) God also says, “do not lie” (Lev. 19:11) but you violate this too, and lie by telling others they may talk to the dead. Not only can the dead not hear our words, they cannot do anything. They know nothing, as King Solomon said, “for the dead know nothing.” (Ecclesiastes, 9:5) This is why God prohibited this action, for it is useless, false, and breeds hope in that which cannot be. Your views cause many to become distressed.
You suggest that a minority, which claims to have seen a miracle, may be believed, such as with regards to the Rebbe or the Besht. If so, may I believe anyone today who says he saw someone perform a miracle? Perhaps someone today, I will claim, outperformed the supposed miracles of the Besht and your Rebbe. According to your view, you must allow me to believe this new miracle worker has surpassed the Besht and your Rebbe. Let us say this new miracle worker, I claim, outperformed Moshe Rabbeinu. Again, you must defend your position that I must be right in following this new miracle worker. According to you, I must then be allowed to believe a Christian, who believes he saw Jesus do a miracle, or a Muslim, that Mohammed is a true prophet. You see, your opinion allows anyone to attain a status of a prophet. But this is not Judaism. You are following your devotion to the Besht and the Rebbe and fake stories, and not a devotion to truth and Torah. As a Rabbi once said, you are attached “man”, not God.
God created the event of Har Sinai – precisely in the eyes of ALL Jews – that such ‘mass witnesses’ be the singular proof of His will and selection of the Jews, and no others. But your opinion negates the need for this mass event of Sinai, as you suggest, one may believe miracles, even with few “witnesses”.
What is the Torah’s position? It is this: we must deny all stories of the Besht’s and the Rebbe’s miracles – of anyone’s miracles – (Jew or gentile) and follow what God intended through His miracles at Sinai: we are to follow only that which is “comprehensively proven in front of masses”. This is the story God wishes all mankind to follow, and to abandon all other impostors. Only such a phenomenon removes all possibility of fabrication and ignorance. And when fabrication and ignorance do not enter a story, the story must be true, as there is no other possibility that a massively attended event, communicated throughout history, can be false. When all possibilities of falsehood have been removed the story must be true. Regarding Sinai, all possibilities have been removed: fabrication is refuted, as masses cannot all share one common motive to lie. Ignorance is refuted, as the event was simple in nature: all know what fire is, and what mountains are. Thus, regarding Mount Sinai’s fiery revelation, there is no possibility that this event was false. It must have occurred. But regarding other stories of reported miracles, if there are no masses, we know that the story may have been fabricated. This applies to your stories of the Rebbe and the Besht performing miracles. God does not demand that we accept any story some religious Jew reports, be he a Rabbi or less. It is precisely because God desires we live based on proof, that He orchestrated Sinai: an event, which cannot be shown to be false.
There is no excuse for your blatant Torah violation, as you entice Jews to violate idolatry, the prohibition of “consulting the dead”. It is essential that others condemn the views of such factions who freely malign God’s Torah and cause Jews to violate not merely small sins, but sins that God refers to as “abominations”.