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Op-Ed: Erev Rav 2.0

by Yochanan Gordon

As Gimmel Tammuz once again approaches, it’s appropriate to reflect on the past eighteen years and analyze the effect that the Rebbe’s passing has had on his Chassidim, and how we have dealt with the situation overall.

The observance of a Yartzeit for the survivors of the deceased is very much similar to that of the marking of a birthday or the anniversary of a marriage between couples. A Jew’s obligation in this world is to continue to strive towards attaining new heights, and so with the passing of each year, we take stock on multifarious levels of the past and commit towards rising to new levels in the coming year.

In the prayer that we wish mourners in the house of bereavement we say, “Hamakom Yenachem Eschem B’soch She’ar Availei Zion V’Yerushalayim.” The description Hamakom is employed in an instance where there is a void in holiness that needs to be filled by those who are initiated in the process. As an example, in the Haggadah we recite the words, “Baruch Hamakom…” which enumerates the four sons that the Torah speaks of. We are all aware of the fifth son that refuses to show up at the seder, and it’s on account of this fifth son that the description of Hamakom is inserted here.

When one experiences a loss, in our case a colossal loss with the Rebbe’s passing, it takes a unified and concerted effort by us all to fill the void left by the loss of one individual – the Rebbe. As we have seen, the task that we were plunged into would be hard enough given an unobstructed path to accomplish our goal, but unfortunately the Satan continues to work overtime testing our resolve, resilience and commitment to getting the job done.

Although we lost the Rebbe in a physical sense, on some level our ability to connect with him and strengthen our bond to him posthumously is much greater than even during his lifetime. The Zohar famously writes that a Tzaddik’s influence with regard to our world increases with his passing, now that he has shed his physical, limiting body.

The manner in which we could strengthen our relationship to the Rbbe and continue to be guided by him is undoubtedly through connecting with him through his writings. In fact, although the Rebbe had no physical children or legal inheritors, we the chassidim were given the opportunity and privilege to use his writings towards getting to know him and uniting the world through them as he did during his lifetime. The Rebbe quoted many times that which the sefarim write regarding the word Anochi, which is the Roshei Teivos: “Ana Nafshi Ksavis Yehavis” – I give my soul to the writings. The Rebbes heart and soul were placed in his maamarim, sichos and letters and he wants us to connect to him through them.

However, the Rebbe is quoted as saying that – while there are those who try to be mekasher themselves by wearing their hat and garb in the manner that he did – such conduct does not create an environment of hiskashrus. On that same token, just because an individual or a group of individuals dress a certain way, and situate themselves amongst Chassidim – does not make them Chassidim.

Dovid Hamelech writes, “Saviv Reshaim Yishalachun” implying that impurity encamps in the vicinity of holiness. In other words, the nature of evil is to assimilate and situate itself to become indistinguishable from the holy in order to have an impact and negative influence on it. So while in the eighteen years since the Rebbe’s passing Lubavitch continues to grow exponentially, age-old disputes have been reconciled and Chabad has made tremendous inroads towards mainstreaming itself on a healthy margin – as it has been at earlier junctures in history, there are those who continuously try to undo all the positive that has been done and counteract all the effort and self-sacrifice that was required to get until this point.

The ‘Tzfati’ community continues to wreak havoc and destruction in Crown Heights. Despite losing legal battles to remain in Bais Rabbeinu, and it seems like they are growing and getting stronger and have no plans to leave anytime soon. We would like to think of them as isolated occurrences, but a handful of stories that I am aware of has them fighting with Mashpi’im, jeopardizing members of Shomrim during that fiasco over a year ago and just this morning sadistically beating a homeless man and threatening eyewitnesses from speaking to the authorities. Notwithstanding the fact that attempts have been made to rid them from the community, someone has to claim accountability and put an end to this.

G-d did not want the Erev Rav to leave Egypt with the Jewish people, but Moshe pleaded on their behalf. The length and bitterness of the exile that we continue to endure is due in large part to the Erev Rav who assimilated amongst us. In an era where efforts are being made to improve on an individual and communal level with all the areas that need improvement, how long are we going to let these parasites eat away and corrode the beautiful structure that we are trying to build? If you want to do construction but you find out you have a crack in your foundation you have to secure that hole to ensure the safety of the building and the people living inside of it. There is a crack in the foundation and we have to fix it if we want our efforts to eventually succeed.

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43 Comments

  • Meshichist, nisht mishegist

    Calling kosher Yidden erev rav? This is the Rebbe’s way? The real meshichisten have more ahavas Yisroel in their little fingers than this author has in all of his miserable being.

    The extremists may be mentally ill, or they may be misguided, and they do need to be removed, but they also need help.

    This article should be submitted to Der Yid circa 1982.

  • Holy Intentions - Chayos Hakodesh

    Everything the “Tzfati” bochurim do is done l’shem shomayim. You may not agree with their methods, but no one can claim that they do so for personal gain. Those who condemn them – at least most of the condemners, have personal agendas and interests.

    Some condemners seek personal honor, some seek their personal comfort zone, some seek power and some seek assets – but each has an agenda to condemn the Tzfatis, while the Tzfatis have NO personal agenda but to fill the rotzon of Cha“k Ada”sh AS THEY UNDERSTAND IT.

    You have a right to disagree but no right to condemn.

    Their intentions are holier than yours!

    To quote Chazal, “Better an avaira lishma than a mitzva shelo lishma.”

    Let them be Chayos Hakodesh rather than Behamos.

  • levi

    idk if you guys are trying to bring moshiach with all With all this lashon hora.

  • Important messagge

    I dont generally leave comments, but i feel forced here. To the editors of ch.info, i beg you, beyond the politics and everything else to please take this article down. It isnt because of meshichism or other nonsense, but because it hurt so very much to read it. speaking about the rebbe in such grobe and mundane terms made me almost vomit. °No children of his own…legal heirs…his passing…mourning° These are things we all know and feel, but dont write on a public platform, for all to read. when you make a book from intimate and real hergeshim about the rebbe, thats when it starts to become fake, and turns into a businness. Im no meshichist or whatever, but i can hardly remember the last time i said the word passing, passed away, with regards to the rebbe.
    One final point being, that this article isnt saying anyhting, or demanding anyhting from its readers, we all know the tzfati issue, and would love to rid ourselves of it, but dont know how to , and this fellow offers no new solution.
    I respectfully beg you to please take it down, with an aching heart.

  • Precursor to hate

    Talk about “the nature of evil is to assimilate and situate itself to become indistinguishable from the holy in order to have an impact and negative influence on it.”

    Your article starts off very beautifully, but only as a precursor to the hatred you are about to spew. Much like the meraglim who started off nicely…..

  • Ta-aruvois rav

    This very article is the epitome of erev rav. The mixing of holy words of kedusha yet the snide and obvious words of hate.

    If you really wanted to fix the ‘problem’ you would DO something, maybe investigate who were the perpetrators. Instead you spew your hateful words to the entire world. Do you feel better now?

  • Ahavas Yisroel

    The erev rav were not Jews. You are talking about Jewish people. If you’ve learned Mitzvas Ahavas Yisroel in Derech Mitzvosecha, then you know that your approach is incorrect. A Jew is a Jew. A Jew is not erev rav. You may not like their actions, but they are still your brothers. Jews may do things we don’t like, but there is no denying that we are REQUIRED to love them as we love ourselves.

  • Who gets to choose

    The Rebbe tells us that no Jew will be left behind. Are you suggesting that some Jews SHOULD be left behind?

  • jew lover

    Anti semitism

    It’s amazing how a person can make old-fashioned anti semitism sound like a new idea!!! In honor of gimmel tammuz u wanna fight?!?! THAT’S your idea of holiness????? Darkness isn’t fought with a stick!! Go bring Moshiach your way. Don’t become a bitter anti semite, it stinks.

  • Avrahom

    Well said. All it takes is for the Rosh Yeshiva of 770 not to allow BACHURIM in unless they agree to rules that apply to Rav Heller’s Collel. No Yechi yalmulka and no pins. Have hired guards to enforce it and they will disappear IN ONE DAY

  • i dont get it!!

    bs“d

    im a fiercemishichist and if somone can explain this to me in a way OTHER then mishichist then there may be somthing to talk about
    (this is not an exact Quote)
    ”the rebbe said in a sichah that “moshe rabeinu lo mes”, how is and why is that, b/c the neshomoh of moshe has to be in every generation and the neshomo goes into the guf of the nosie hador”

    so i ask you: what makes moshe rabeinu’s neshama beter in the rebbe’s guf (rather then moshe’s) if the rebbe isn’t alive b’gashmy?

    moshiach now!!!

    ps. not written for controversy, i just want an explanition (no one has given me one so far)?

  • Chanie

    Mr Yochanan Gordon, You had me nodding my head in agreement until the last line. You quote all these amazing meforshim – and sound really learned until the closing paragraph when you refer to your fellow Jews as Erev Rav/Parasites. How can you identify as a Chabad Chossid and encourage your readers to connect to the Rebbe by learning Maamorim and Sichos, but in the same breath demonize and talk in such evil terms about your fellow Jewish brothers? Do I agree with them? No! But surely you can find some better ways to refer to the Chabadnikim from Tzfat.

  • Connecting the Dots!

    Doesn’t anyone see the connection between the beatings and terrorizing being done by the Tzefatim and the ones being received by Lubavitcher’s worldwide!

    If we stop the insanity here the world will be a much safer place for everyone, especially Lubavitchers.

    All donors should stop supporting the yeshiva in 770, and all Lubavitch yeshivahs, until they adopt, implement and hod firmly to a 0 Tolerance Policy (1 strike your out). Send home any bochur who lifts a finger against another bocchur, member of the community, individual or their property. (A bochur stealing or breaking the glasses of another who often can’t afford to buy new ones is just as bad as hitting him in the face.)

    If the minahel cannot hol by such a policy then they should be forced to take their Yeshivah elsewhere and the learning space and dorms should be given to people who are willing to take control and turn the Yeshiva back into one that the Rebbe will be proud of.

  • Chaim Tovim

    Steps that need to be taken:

    1. 770 has already begun the move to not allow the Tzfatim to come on K’vutza. This should be finalized and these hooligans should not be allowed to come: no visas should be granted based on acceptance to 770, no dorm rooms given to them, and they should not be admitted into 770 (at least officially.)

    2. Aguch should hire professional crews to take down the horrible signs (with police protection if need be) from inside 770. Notices should be posted that it is against policy to hang signs on the walls of 770 and surveillance cameras should be posted. Violators will be prosecuted.

    3. Aguch needs to appoint gabo’im for the downstairs minyan (Keep Rabbi Losh on; he’s great!) and if need be, have a security team (or police) enforce them and remove those who don’t maintain the peace.

    4. Normal Lubavitchers: Let’s start coming to 770 in droves and reclaim the space as ours.

    U’bee’arta ho’ra mee’kirbechoh.

  • CHLEAKS.COM

    Not all MESHICHSITIM are MOSSRIM but all MOSSRIM are MESHICHISTIM!!!

    Nice article. It’s time that Chabad distance themselves from Meshichistim. Meshichistim are not Chabad!!!

    And by the way. Just because you have “good intentions” <stupid statement to make in defense of violent mossrim < does not make the violence and Mesira right in anyway. The deed is the main thing, we are not mind readers and neither do we care what someones “intentions” are.

    Thank you author for calling a spade a spade. Look how the Mrshichistim are going mad as a result, they can’t handle the truth!!!

  • Dovid Hamelech

    (10) “For forty years I quarreled with that generation; and I said, ”They are a people of erring hearts, they do not know my ways.“ (11) So I vowed in my anger that they would not enter my resting place. (T:95)

    About all those Meshichistim commenting here, trying to justify and excuse violence and mesira by the meshichistim thugs by falsely claiming they have ”good intention“, ”they really believe” and other liberal intellectually dishonest excuse… I have this to say…

    This is the reason we wont try to convince you any longer (those days are over, we tried and failed, your hopeless). Now we must and will defeat you!!!

  • Tzfatim are not the problem

    Don’t confuse a symptom with the disease.

    The real issue is that there is no responsible chabad leadership. That’s what’s drivin tzfatim, egotistical shluchim / head shluchim, corrupt and weak central orgs such as merkoz and aguch, and many other issues.

    As long as we keep chanting that the rebbe is still with us, and refuse to face the critical issue of responsible leadership we are not any closer to solving any issues.

  • Good Intentions?

    Meshichist says: “Everything the “Tzfati” bochurim do is done l’shem shomayim.”

    A Story of “good intentions”:

    On May 7, 1931, the most sensational manhunt New York City had ever known had come to it’s climex. After weeks of search, “Two Gun” Crowley—the killer, the gunman who didn’t smoke or drink—was at bay, trapped in his sweetheart’s apartment on West End Avenue.

    One hundred and fifty policemen and detectives laid siege to his top-floor hideaway. They chopped holes in the roof; they tried to smoke out Crowley, the “cop killer,” with tear gas. Then they mounted their machine guns on the surrounding buildings, and for more then an hour one New York’s fine residential areas reverberated with the crack of pistol fire and the rat- tat-tat of machine guns. Crowley, crouching behind an
    overstuffed chair, fired incessantly at the police. Ten thousand excited people watched the battle. Nothing like it had ever been seen before on the sidewalks of New York.

    When Crowley was captured, Police Commissioner E.P. Mulroney declared that the two-gun desperado was one of the most dangerous criminals ever encountered in the history of New York. “He will kill,“ said The Commissioner, ”at the drop of a feather.“

    But how did ”Two Gun“ Crowley regard himself? We know, because while the police were firing into his apartment, he wrote a letter addressed ”To whom it may concern.“ And, as he wrote, the blood flowing from his wounds left a crimson trail on the paper. In his letter Crowley said: ”Under my coat is a weary
    heart, but a kind one—-one that would do nobody any harm.“

    A short time before this, Crowley had been having a party with his girl friend on a country road out on Long Island. Suddenly a policeman walked up to the car and said: ”Let me see your license.

    Without saying a word, Crowley drew his gun and cut the policeman down with a shower of lead. As the dying officer fell, Crowley leaped out of the car, grabbed the officer’s revolver, and fired another bullet into the prostrate body. And that was the killer who said:

    “Under my coat is a weary heart, but a kind one–
    –one that would do nobody any harm.”

    [Crowlet was sentenced to the electric chair. When he arrived at the death house in Sing Sing, did he say, “This is what I get for killing people”? NO, he said: “This is what I get for defending myself.”

    The point of the story is this: “Two Gun” Crowley
    Didn’t blame himself for anything.
    That is the usual attitude amongst criminals!!!]

  • I agree with #5 Chayos Hakodesh

    I agree with #5 Chayos Hakodesh. The writer of this op-ed needs to take a good hard look at himself because they are holier than he.

  • chan

    to #15
    what do you care if someone wears a pin or a yechi yalmulka?
    if u have a problem u have to deal with it, if u dont like them dont look at them.

  • no one special

    Attacks on the author & disagreement about the “holiness” of those whose behavior is sociopathetic avoids addressing the criminal, unholy and abusive behavior that is producing more ammunition for those who mock the idea of Rebbe/Moshiach.

  • al

    we should have these tzfasi dudes invade the arab countries we would win in a day

  • FENDEL

    The exchange student program needs to end.

    Let the Arab students now return to their homeland.

    It was a pleasure getting to know you!!

  • antimesira

    To #5:

    Let me punch you in the face and then do a vicious Mesira on you, I promise to have all the good intentions there are, I’ll even go to Mikva and learn a Maamer before I hurt you.

  • Bullies and Cowards

    To #25

    Incorrect, the Meshichistim/Tzfatis are bullies and like all bullies they are cowards, they only pick on the weak and defenseless.

    When people who are not afraid stand up to them, they cry like War Criminals (read: http://whoisshmira.wordpres…). They fight the street fight but run/cry/complain when you fight back.

  • CHLEAKS.COM

    “Right or wrong, you’re passionate. You care.” If that doesn’t sum up current liberal/Mishichist attitudes in the face of facts, I don’t know what does. Caring means more to them than actually knowing the difference between something that’s false and something that’s true, something that is right and something that is wrong.“

    I like how the Mishichistim commenting here are trying (oh so desperately) to create this premise that their fellow Mishichist have good intentions.

    How low can you go? Are you all really that desperate that you have to justify and excuse your friends who do acts of violence and Mesira by claiming (in their defense that) they have good intentions, that they are doing so ”L’shem Shomayim”? what type of B.S. are you trying to pull? This foolish argument will only work on fools and we all know its no Chochma to fool a fool.

    Desperate people do desperate things.
    Funny how those commenting somehow know what others intentions are, not that it matters what intentions are in face of facts, right and wrong.

    We must only defeat them. They had 18 years to make their argument. We had 18 years to see who these people are, they are not our friends, we need not waste time trying to convince them of anything.

  • Corruption and Fruad

    To #5 who wrote:
    “Some condemners seek personal honor, some seek their personal comfort zone, some seek power and some seek assets – but each has an agenda to condemn the Tzfatis, while the Tzfatis have NO personal agenda but to fill the rotzon of Cha“k Ada”sh AS THEY UNDERSTAND IT.”

    Please give one example of anyone who attacks mishichistim becuase of an personal agenda of power etc…

    I can give you an example of how your people (the CHJCC and Mendel Hendel) have been stealing millions in the name of the Mishichist agenda! http://whoisshmira.wordpres…

    I can give you numerous examples of lawsuits and Mesira that was done in the name of the Mishichist agenda!

    But since you brought this up (and made this argument), I will give you an opportunity to present your facts first.

    The days of Mikva talk are over, today we deal with facts!!!

  • normal?

    attacks against the tzfatim doesn’t make you normal or kosher. Rather much of the same on the other extreme.

  • antimesira

    To #38

    When all else fails use the “it’s both sides fault”, “both sides are extreme” line. Ye, works every-time!!!

  • sleeper

    this was said becuase the writer needs attention and wishes to deflect the reality of a rebbe-less rebbe-centric movement away from the real rpobelm.

    this was posted here to get attention and hits.

    as someone wrote above – Yawn.

    It’s almost 20 years, that’s a generation in itself. make something up for yourslef that works. Maybe others agree and you have a group. but regurguitating 20 year old “arguments”and trying to pick a fight? so childish.

  • Tsugin to #9

    Your comments about feeling pain at speaking about the Rebbe’s tragic passing are heartfelt and make me feel sympathy for you, but it’s critically important that you *not* allow that pain to prevent you from participating in this issue. Speaking as an outsider-insider, this is *the* issue facing the survival of Chabad in the world as a force of any magnitude. So much energy is drained by this rarely-acknowledged-yet-fundamental controversy. Imagine how much more chassidim could achieve if this were resolved? I think that this op-ed is one of the only times I have ever heard a non-mishichist in this community actually put words to what he believe in his heart, and I think the power in that is incalculable. The “other” side is very loud and very proud, and while I’m not saying that you should adopt their unorthodox methods, I do know that fear and pain cannot prevent you from serving in the tzivos harebbe at this crucial moment in history.