The Death of the (Other) Messiah

Fifteen years ago today a man that millions of Jews believed was the Messiah died.  As in Christianity, his tomb has become a place of veneration.  There is, however, one significant difference between the two tombs.  Arutz-7 gives a little of the background, while entirely skirting the issue that the large percentage of Chabad still believes that Schneerson is the Messiah.

Thursday, "Gimel Tammuz" [the third day of Tammuz) on the Hebrew calendar, marks the fifteenth anniversary of the passing of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson of blessed memory, when the man arguably most responsible for outreach to the unaffiliated Jew-in-the-street in the past century had left this world.

“The Rebbe,” as he was known by Jews the world over, was the seventh and last spiritual leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch Chassidic world movement, and his Chassidim observe the anniversary of his death with various events in every continent on the planet. His marriage did not bear any children, and the Chabad movement has felt it inappropriate to appoint a successor.

Tens of thousands of people are already flocking to visit the Rebbe’s gravesite in Queens, New York, where his body is interred next to that of his father-in-law, the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneerson.

The burial site today is comprised of a huge outdoor dining hall, a smaller building with a full library, a media center constantly showing videos of the Rebbe, a mikvah (ritual immersion poll) and a bustling office that receives e-mails and faxes from supplicants around the world.

If you ‘re in need of guidance, you can send the Rebbe a letter.