It isn’t often one gets an insight into Jewish religious extremism. Then again, who would want to?
But it is hard to ignore when they are tunneling under your city. And make no mistake, they could be tunneling under YOUR city.
It was one of those stories you skim past as you review the news, then your mind sort of hiccups and you think “Wait. What?”
At first there seemed to be no consensus on what the tunnel or tunnels were for, with speculation ranging from baby-killing alters to clandestine circle-jerk meetings. Personally, my first thought was preparation for another Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
But it was nothing so nefarious. Long-story short: Jewish nut-jobs have their messianic cults too, and this one was trying to bring about a return of their messiah and fulfill his wishes. It seems the building they were tunneling to (a synagogue) was closed. They wanted into it.
Without getting too deep in the weeds of Jewish factionalism (because, frankly, who cares): the “…tunnel [was] dug by a group of messianic yeshiva students who believe in the imminent return of the movement’s late leader, Rabbi Mendel Schneerson. The passageway was apparently used to dump debris from an unauthorized expansion of the synagogue onto an unused property next door.” – source: Forward
The group of messianists, known by the Yiddish term meshichisten. have congregated in the synagogue in the building’s basement for years; many are from Israel. But they are not permitted upstairs, where the organization’s official offices are located. …the tunnel diggers were trying to bring to fruition an expansion of the synagogue that Schneerson himself had endorsed.
The sect in question is known as the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement. Their centers of worship are known as Chabad Houses. Make no mistake: this is a hard-core Jewish movement prone to messianic fervor, Rebbe worship, and unwavering belief in the literal truth of the Torah. Indeed, most members do not consider themselves Zionists, because they believe the state of Israel is not Jewish enough.
And that superiority complex extends beyond Israel to every non-Jew:
Common to both the Talmud and the Halacha (Orthodox religious law) is a differentiation between Jews and non-Jews. The respected Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who headed the Chabad movement and wielded great influence in the U.S., explained that, “The difference between a Jewish and a non-Jewish person stems from the common expression, ‘Let us differentiate.’…We have a case between totally different species…The body of a Jewish person is of a totally different quality from the body of (members) of all nations of the world…A non-Jew’s entire reality is only vanity…The entire creation of a non-Jew is only for the sake of the Jews…”
Gulp. Then it got scary when I saw this:
..the organization’s influence has expanded worldwide since the Rebbe’s death. There are now 3,500 Chabad houses operating in hundreds of neighborhoods and college towns around the U.S. and in another 100 countries around the world.
Wait, what? I knew every town of any size has a synagogue. But a wack-a-doodle Chabad House? A quick search on Chabad’s own website confirmed my worst fears:
Yes brothers and sisters, one of the fastest-growing Jewish cults may have a headquarters near you. The next time you think you hear mice in the walls, or rats in the cellar, you might check. It could be someone tunneling in.
This is not a call to violence. Personally, I don’t care if they want to build little club-houses and play with themselves, as long as they keep it to themselves. But, equally, it is important to be aware what is going on in one’s neighborhood, what influences might be impacting one’s community or local college, and, in the case of the Brooklyn location, what illegal construction might be going on! Heaven forbid they hit a gas line… wait, that didn’t come out right.
Amerika Erwache!
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