Interesting (And Some Disturbing) Posts and Articles On Gimmel Tammuz

At least, from my perspective.

1. Avakesh posts a video on "growing up with the Rebbe"
   
2. At DwellingPlaceBelow, Eliyahu ben Pinchas discusses how tzaddikim do not really die and how it is possible that the Lubavitcher Rebbe left this world so as to deal with requests more speedily. He makes comparisons to the Satan showing Moshe's coffin, and to Yaakov Avinu lo meis. And seems to think the Rebbe is mashiach, as well.
   
   So as to relate it to a parsha, I will quote one quote:
   

   "Did Moshe die? Rashi says he buried himself!!! (I’ve often wondered what kind of a death that was then!)"

   It is indeed a good question, what it means that Moshe buried himself. However, Ibn Ezra says the very same thing, hu kavar atzmo, and Ibn Ezra is not one who goes off on midrashic, far-fetched readings of pesukim, and is not one to put miracles into the Biblical narrative where the plain meaning of the text is otherwise. The answer is that Ibn Ezra comments "hu kavar atzmo shenichnas bemaarah bagai." That is, we are not talking about our modern day burial inside of graves in the ground, in cemetaries. Rather, we are talking about burial in a cave. And so Moshe entered a cave by himself, lay down, and then his spirit passed into the next world.
   
   
3. Mystical Paths talks about being a chossid of a rebbe. Frankly, this topic is a touchy one, such that speech must be chosen carefully. Using as well as avoiding certain terms has a connotation. Thus, when he states:
   

   On this 14th Gimmel Tammuz, the 14th year without the Rebbe's physical presence among us, let us remember that we have the instructions. We don't need to find new paths or do wild new things, we don't need to shout at our fellow or make strange new slogans.

   the words "without the Rebbe's physical presence" are mildlyalarming, since these seem carefully chosen words, to avoid saying zatzal, or that the Rebbe died. And the idea of not needing to make new slogans seems to convey that they have the same goal as those shouting slogans. That goal may be to bring mashiach through performing of mitzvos (my goal is to do mitzvos because Hashem commanded them and because they are the right thing to do), but it suggests they may have the same belief in the identity of that moshiach.
   
   
4. A Simple Jew posts links to old posts -- guest postings and question and answers -- in honor of Gimmel Tammuz. This includes two discussions about using Igros haKodesh to communicate with the Rebbe. Personally, I think that this is a form of divination to communicate with the dead, and I know that all sorts of frum-sounding rationalizations are possible to justify any problematic practice.
   
   
5. Aussie Echo reprints an article by Yanki Tauber from last year. I will stress that he does not read it in a meshichist, denial-of-Rebbe's death way. Rather, as an expression of how he feels. But as I explained last year, I think that there is this message being surreptitiously conveyed. Which is unfortunate, because that would be the perversion of the yahrtzheit of a tzaddik.
   
   
6. Life of Rubin talks about the difficulty of coming to terms with the Rebbe's death. There is nothing wrong with this -- except of course in terms of Rav Belsky's comments about the personality cult, discussed a month or so ago.
   
   Also, in terms of
   

   I remember the Shabbos before in front of 770 a non Lubavitcher who must have been visiting for Shabbos was baiting me and some of my then Yeshiva friends into a debate. It was about us “accepting the inevitable possibility” and I remember how angry we got with him. We weren’t prepared for this, we weren’t even thinking it was possible.

   It was not "baiting." The fact is that (many) Lubavitcher chassidim did not think that the Rebbe could die because he was mashiach, and further that the Rebbe said that mashiach would come in "our" generation. (They have since revised this theology in various ways.) This was an important theological point to determine, and press. Unfortunately this important point also mixed with personal feelings for the Rebbe.
   
   
7. Chabad.org posts a video of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, zatzal, and titles it "He, too, is alive." Here is my partial excerpt of the closed-captioning. Click to see the video:

   A tzaddik never leaves this world, only the restrictions of his body are removed, and he continues on with unlimited influence. Although we cannot see it physically, we need only create the wherewithal ... In the words of the Talmud: Just as his children are alive, so is he alive. {spoken about Yaakov Avinu lo meis}
   
   Observing the conduct of the Rebbe's children, his students, those who studied under him directly or through his writings, or teachings - when "his children are alive" when the Rebbe's influence lives within them, and through them, enlivens those around them, then "he too, is alive."
   
   The Talmud needs no proof that our father, Jacob, lives on in heaven. We're talking about life in this world! When his children are alive, the Rebbe lives as well -- with even greater presence and vitality than before.
   
   When he sees those who during his lifetime were his "chldren," continue to progress and embody his efforts to spread Judaism, Torah and Mitzvos -- and they do so pleasantly and peacefully, but with true fortitude and untiring determination, persistance onecnce, twice, as many times as is necessary until the success is guaranteed, then the Rebbe, too, is alive. Then the Rebbe, himself, is present among all those who gather in his honor, and through the delight we bring his soul, he blesses and empowers us spiritually and physically -- in all our endeavors in general, and especially in our work to fulfill his mandate...

   I think that given the way these words and ideas have been taken -- and perhaps even the way the Lubavitcher Rebbe intended them, this is not the right video to show on his Yahrtzheit.