CHABAD AND RABBI MENACHEM MENDEL SCHNEERSON

THIS MATRIX IS STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT, BUT.....

Many Bible Code researchers have a tendency to show their best matrices, and gloss over those that are less spectacular.  While their goal may be to promote belief in the Code, less candid approaches only lead to refutation of all findings by skeptics, even when the truth is that the issue of Code reality is not yet fully resolved.  Shown below, the best matrix for MENACHEM MENDEL only occurs at the 3rd lowest (which is the highest) ELS of his name.  As such, the probability method that I employ reduces its value to one third of what it would have been had the matches shown been at the lowest (best) skip for Menachem Mendel.  The word for KING, when not at skip +1, is so common at an ELS that I did not even use the computer to search the matrix for it.  Instead I simply visually scanned the matrix for the three required letters, then highlighted them.  Its p value is close to 1 (worthless), so how good is the match with ANOINTING?  Note, I wanted the word for Messiah (which is the same word as anointed).  As the open text here reads ANOINTING OIL OF HIS GOD IS UPON HIM, I searched the Torah for frequency of both ANOINTED and ANOINTING at skip +1.  ANOINTED occurs 4 times in Torah, ANOINTING is found 21 times.  The total, 25 occurrences of either word, leads to a probability to directly cross MENACHEM MENDEL in a 36-letter box that equates to one chance in 113 (p = .0088).  This is significant, but the Messiah will not be determined by statistical significance.  He will be determined by God, and recognized by his acts.  In particular, this means ending war permanently.  Any identification of an individual as Messiah before he completes his required role is premature, and counterproductive. 

THE ROAD AHEAD

Extracts of an e-mailed critique of this page and my rebuttal to it:

S.R.: I do not know if the Lubavitch Rebbe is or is not the Messiah BUT your notion and misconception seems that if YOU cannot find it in the bible codes then he cannot be the Messiah whether or not Halachic Opinion may differ. 

RESPONSE:  You misunderstood me.  If you go back to the very paragraph in the home page on my web site, I state, "...I've concluded that any idea of a general predictive Code needs to be modified in accordance with Talmudic principles and the concept of Free Will. Not everyone will find their name in the Bible Code."  Further, on this page, I plainly stated above in reference to the absence of the name Schneerson, "is not unusual as it requires 10 Hebrew letters to spell it as is shown on the letterhead of his stationary ...  It is relatively rare for 9 a-priori letters to appear in an Equidistant Letter Sequence (ELS), and much more rare for 10 letters to be found in this fashion.  As such, the search conducted was for the name that appears on his grave - Menachem Mendel. At no point do I state that there is a requirement for the Messiah's name to be encoded, although, IF the Code is real, we might expect it to be there in a meaningful way.  Indeed, I go on in the article to display a third matrix that shows the Name Menachem Mendel is indeed there in a meaningful, statistically significant way. 

    The problem primarily being discussed in the article is not the name, but the idolization of the man in question and the entirely unjustified belief that he must be the Messiah, even though he died without fulfilling any of the requirements of that position.  Is this really what we waited for all these thousands of years through Inquisitions, Pogroms, and Holocausts - not the end of war, but another dead rabbi who must be raised from the dead?  How can we distinguish this from Christian belief in their dead rabbi coming back as Messiah?   Certainly, belief that a potential Messiah or his soul comes in every generation does fall within the pale of Judaism.  But, as I asked a Chabad rabbi who insisted that there is such a man alive today, "Who is the candidate of all children born after the Rebbe's death?"  The rabbi, in a meeting with my son and I, asserted that it is still Rabbi Schneerson even though he is dead. 

S.R.:

in Jewish areas, and especially in Jerusalem, we find posters plastered all over the place proclaiming him as theKing Messiah 

On what Basis do you say this? Was Bar Kosiba not proclaimed by the throngs as the Messiah, with famous Torah leaders in its helm including the great and famous Torah Sage Rabbi Akiva

RESPONSE:

You are absolutely right about Bar Kochba.  The essential issue here is this:   When Rabbi Akiba made his (wrong) proclamation, Bar Kochba was alive. There is the important detail that both men, like the Nazarene, are now long dead.  Bar Kocha was one of many promising souls that failed to get the job done.  Others were Shabbatai Sevi (who became a Muslim), and Jacob Frank (who became a Catholic).  Do we really need another dead, false messiah?

S.R.:

This seems to be your own feeling and opinion. Everyone is entitled to have their opinion but don't present is as an across the board sentiment and feeling.

RESPONSE:

Question:  Do MOST Orthodox rabbis accept Rabbi Schneerson as the Messiah?  Answer - NO.

Chabad is currently thought to be only the third or fourth largest Hasidic movement in Orthodox Judaism in terms of numbers of adherents. There are over 200,000 adherents to the movement and up to a million Jews attend Chabad services at least once a year.  What does attending services mean?  Does it make these people Orthodox?  Not if they do not keep kosher, drive on the Sabbath, and do not use a mickveh when such use is required by Jewish Law.  Chabad is also accepting of interfaith marriages when offering aliyahs (honors in being called up to the Torah).  Other branches of Orthodoxy are much less so.

S.R.:

Later you write

 Shown on this figure to the right are some of the posters that are all over Jerusalem.  These posters bring to mind the Commandment,"You shall not make an image of anything in heaven." 

(insult deleted) The above stated commandment refers to a Carved Image from stone or the like not a printed picture. I think I recall seeing your portrait in Egypt on the home page of your web site.....is that also idolatry?

RESPONSE: First, again, study the Carved Image on the gold Congressional Schneerson  coin shown at the bottom of the column on the left.  I have absolutely no problem with family pictures on a wall, or even a photo of the Rebbe (and other rabbis) being in his office - though I think the focus on one single rabbi's omnipresent portraits and photos on every wall (except the bathrooms) of a Chabad house smack of cultism. What sparked my interest in searching for Schneerson in the Code was a combination of the intense defacement of Jerusalem with Schneerson portraits proclaiming him to be the King Messiah after his death, with one particularly blasphemous image of him that was seen in one particular Chabad Jewish Community Center.  I will skip description of the image in this discussion, with the hope that the offending Chabad Center will remove the image. However, let me quote the Stone Edition Chumash published by Mesorah Publications (ArtScroll Series) in 1993, page 409 - the second of the 10 Commandments (Exodus 20:4) and its commentary on page 408.

The Commandment:

You shall not make yourself a carved image nor any likeness of that which is in the heavens above or in the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth.

Stone Commentary: Carved image...likeness. This verse prohibits not only the worship, but manufacture of idols.  A carved image is a three-dimensional, accurate representation of something, while a likeness is a symbolic image which may be either sculptured, drawn, or produced in any other way. 

What part of the above Torah do you not understand?  The part about an image of that which is in heaven (like a dead person, not a living person), the part about it being drawn or produced in ANY other way?  Perhaps the part about that which is below the earth, like a corpse.... like Schneerson's corpse?   

By now all Jews know about the sin of the Golden Calf, so how could Chabad justify the effort to get Congress to issue a golden coin with Rabbi Schneerson’s image on it?

S.R.:

Do all Houses not have pictures of Gedolim and the like? In the Book "Galia" by Shulamis Gad (The moving story of a specific child and her mother who communicate via. Facilitated Communication the author even claims that her daughter communicated to her that she needs pictures of Gedolim in the Room because they add to the sanctity of the room.

RESPONSE: 

You use the plural, Gedolim (greats).  Not the singular, gedol (great).  If Chabad Jewish Centers posted of a series of portraits - say of all 7 Chabad rebbes, the effect would not be as serious.  But when it is only one rebbe, and his image is on nearly every wall, then we should think back the example set with Moshe Rebbeinu (Moses).  Where is his grave that Jews and others may visit it?  Hidden in the Mt. Nebo area.  Where is his portrait?  His grave was hidden so that Jews would not worship him, as many in the more extreme wings of Chabad pretty much do with Schneerson. 

S.R.: What do you characterize as TOO FAR in duplicating Christian Theology? And who said it is duplicating Christian Theology, maybe it is the reverse?

RESPONSE:

Christianity was first to claim that the Messiah must come twice. 

S.R.:
You seem to bear some sort of grudge against your Rabbi or to Chabad as a whole (or maybe both) and therefore you began to profess your own ignorance in intricate and detailed Jewish Matters.

RESPONSE:
Again, you owe me an apology.  I am retired high school science teacher and Coast Guard Reserve officer, living on a fixed income.  I donated over $1,600 to Chabad this past year.  Does that sound like a grudge against Chabad?  I have spent most of the last 35 years learning.  I have published three books on Judaism and comparative religion, and I own and study from a huge personal Jewish library that includes the full 73 volume set of Schottenstein Talmuds.

S.R.:

Chabad does not need your measly few hundred dollars. Chabad needs your sanity. Chabad survived the past 200 and some odd years without your help and will continue to do so either with you or without you!

RESPONSE:

Chabad survived 200 years?  So what? Christianity has survived for 2,000 years.  What the does that prove?  Islam has survived for 1,400 years.  Theological correctness is neither defined by duration of doctrine, nor by numbers - with billions of Christians and Muslims in the world today.  If either history or numbers were significant, you and I would have long ago converted to one of those other faiths mentioned - or perhaps to Buddhism!