The Sensible Jew

by Malki Rose

Rabbi Groner (the late head of the Chabad Movement of Judaism in Australia) was a great man.  I did not agree with many of his views; indeed, I’d argued with him about a number of theoretical and practical matters.

But I had enormous respect for him because he was, above all things, a father and teacher to thousands of children and adults over a very long period, nurturing his community in a relatively new and very isolated Jewish outpost.  He was a Manhig HaDor, the ‘leader of a generation’

The fire and fury of his words would cause many to tremble, but then the comforting warmth of this fire’s gentle afterglow offered a protection, a fatherly reassurance, and a promise of guidance and leadership.

Sadly, his departure from this world has left a vacuum in Australian Chabad almost as deep as the one left by the departure of Rabbi Schneerson, the late global head Rabbi of the Chabad/Lubavitch Movement.

Arguably, the Australian vacuum was even more profound.

Rabbi Groner and the Australian Jewish Community were a microcosm of Rabbi Schneerson’s global leadership of the worldwide Chabad Community.

In 1994, when Rabbi Schneerson died, the Chabad world was upended. This was not just the death of a wise old man. The new absence of the Rabbi’s Herculean skills of creating worldwide campaigns to promote brotherly love, random acts of kindness, charity and education, was about to threaten the movement existentially.

Almost overnight a rift developed between those who felt that Rabbi Schneerson was the true King and Messiah and those who revered the great man without the same messianic interpretation. Both groups insisted that his legacy be propagated.

The messianists, however, engaging in a kind of Elvis-fan style refusal to believe in Schneerson’s mortality, proclaimed him the Messiah the world over, and promptly set themselves apart from the rest of Jewish Orthodoxy in profound ways that went beyond the usual sectarian differences.

Many in Chabad did not follow this route, however, and saw their role as simply continuing Rabbi Schneerson’s work in global Jewish outreach, the aforementioned random acts of kindness and charity and education, as a means of hastening the Messiah’s arrival.

Confusingly for outsiders (and perhaps insiders, too), one unified Chabad message remained clear and consistent, and continues until this day throughout the movement: Moshiach (Messiah) is right here on our doorstep, we just have to open the door and welcome him in (through activities like acts of kindness).

During this time not a single Chabad leader spoke out publicly against the messianist strand. Not one. Not in New York, not in Israel, and certainly not in Melbourne.

While there seemed to be a kind of silent agreement among many Chabad leaders not to pronounce on the Messiah issue, there was some disquiet expressed by some less dominant figures.

For a while, many Chabad members felt that to state publicly that Rabbi Schneerson was not the Messiah, would result in ostracism.

As a result, the Chabad world was without an assertive and vocal leader to provide guidance on a fundamental question of faith.

While the Australian Chabad community was mourning Schneerson, they still had their local leader, Rabbi Groner, to bind them together.

As Rabbi Groner’s health deteriorated in his latter years, it became increasingly evident that a day would soon arrive when Australian Chabad would also find itself without its primary religious and spiritual guide, and consequently without a charismatic figure to prevent a schism within the movement.

Again, during that time, no efforts were made to curb the growing wave of messianist activity, and messianic signage proliferated around the streets of East St Kilda.

At Rabbi Groner’s death, some looked to his son-in law and successor, Rabbi Zvi Telsner, to continue to hold the divergent Chabad strands together. Others, however, perceived a void in charismatic leadership bent on unity, and sought to use the opportunity to push the non-messianist position with Rabbi Telsner, and to apply pressure to marginalise the messianists.

Committed messianists, such as the ‘Moshiach Dancers’ or Honk4Joy crew, have been dancing on an East St Kilda street corner for more than 2 years now.  Meanwhile, all over the world, since the advent of Youtube, Chabad messianists have posted numerous videos of celebrations at the Messiah’s arrival, messianic dancing in New York, the leaving of holy notes at his grave, and singing to the deceased leader’s empty chair.

Still no leaders spoke out or demanded material be withdrawn or individuals be reprimanded, even though such material strayed far from – in fact directly contradicted – any conventional Orthodox Jewish practice.

This tacit acceptance of the messianic stream of Chabad came to an abrupt end on January 10, this year, in Melbourne.

Rabbi Telsner issued a public notice stating that a messianist family, which had publicised their contraventions of Jewish law on Youtube while celebrating the Messiah’s arrival, had desecrated God’s name. Consequently, these people must be ostracised by their community in all spheres – whether religious or non-religious.

This was the first time any official Chabad body publicly acknowledged and shunned such behaviour.

The question is not whether these ostracized people violated halacha (Jewish law), or desecrated God’s name. According to Jewish Orthodoxy, they certainly did; however many other Chabad members had behaved similarly, but escaped such punishment over the years since rabbi Schneerson’s death. Other, less religious Jews, who break many (but different) Jewish laws are welcomed into Chabad’s synagogues.

The real – and obvious – questions are: why now? Why these people in particular? Why not all the others?

And why has the punishment been so harsh?

Many others still make it to the realms of respectability and swerve with ease around the signposts of reprimand, despite their transgressions.

So why is it that a handful of people who hurt no child, violated no individual’s rights, and who did little more than obsess over an arguably deluded eschatological theory which no Chabad leader had ever previously publicly protested, are shunned in this cruel manner?

Is this not a direct contradiction of Rabbi Schneerson’s and Rabbi Groner’s philosophy, of bringing the Messiah’s arrival closer through performing random acts of kindness?

It’s interesting to see how unwelcome Jews can be not just in the wider world but in our very own communities.

Perhaps another rift is forming, one defined by random acts of intolerance and exclusivity. And perhaps it will come to define Rabbi Groner’s dying Lubavitch community.

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