Rav Yaakov Emden and Opponents of the Rebbe and Chabad: Like Korach and his Edah?

In a Mishna in Avos:

כָּל מַחֲלוֹקֶת שֶׁהִיא לְשֵׁם שָׁמַיִם, סוֹפָהּ לְהִתְקַיֵּם. וְשֶׁאֵינָהּ לְשֵׁם שָׁמַיִם, אֵין סוֹפָהּ לְהִתְקַיֵּם. אֵיזוֹ הִיא מַחֲלוֹקֶת שֶׁהִיא לְשֵׁם שָׁמַיִם, זוֹ מַחֲלוֹקֶת הִלֵּל וְשַׁמַּאי. וְשֶׁאֵינָהּ לְשֵׁם שָׁמַיִם, זוֹ מַחֲלוֹקֶת קֹרַח וְכָל עֲדָתוֹ:

And so naturally, anyone who feels he is being wronged and the target of an unfair attack will classify the machlokes as the latter, rather than the former.

In an Anonymous comment last week (please choose a pseudonym) on parshat Korach, someone wrote:

Somone Showed me a funny comment from Rav Yonasan Eibeshutz as we all know Yackov did not want to mentioned But said Rav Yonasan I have myown Yackov Reb Yackov Emden.
If i Remeber the sefer I will post it.

This is very funny. Meanwhile, while some might allege that Rav Yaakov Emden was acting out of jealousy for the position, I think that he honestly believed that Rav Yonasan Eibeshutz was a closet Sabbatean. (And there is some good evidence that he was correct in his allegations.) But by saying this, the strong implication is that this is a machlokes Korach vaAdato.

Related to this, there was a first page essay in the Five Towns Jewish Times in honor of Gimmel Tammuz asserting that those rabbis and others who opposed the Rebbe and Chabad were simply troublemakers, who wanted a fight. And that they are to be compared to Dasan and Aviram. Thus, a small sampling:

Professional Rabble-Rousers

These four incidents paint a fairly accurate picture of Dasan and Aviram’s characters. They were not idealistic adversaries, disputing Moshe for ideological reasons; the fact is that they quarreled between themselves too, independent of Moshe. Nor were they driven by envy, seeking the power and prestige possessed by Moshe; the fact is that they fought Moshe long before he became a leader.

...

If They Only Knew…

This Thursday, June 25, the third of Tamuz, marks the 15th anniversary of the passing of one of the great leaders of our generation, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn.

One of the most outstanding features of the Rebbe was the way he dealt with those who opposed him. Sadly, some individuals in the Jewish world never missed an opportunity to criticize the Lubavitcher Rebbe, to denigrate him and scoff at him. Some individuals even made it an important mission to sow hatred against him and his movement among their students. Motivated by ideology, ignorance, envy, or arrogance, these people made his life difficult. And yet, the Lubavitcher Rebbe never ceased to love them and seek ways to terminate the animosity and separation. The Rebbe never made peace with the fact that “some Jews just won’t get along with each other.” He loathed disunity among Jews and sought every opportunity to foster mutual respect and affection.

I always remember thinking that if the Rebbe’s opponents would only know how much he cared for their well-being, they could never harbor negative sentiments toward him.

I am not making a statement that all those, or any of those, who opposed the Rebbe or Chabad beliefs, were or were not rabble-rousers. Still, it is interesting how these patterns emerge.

Similarly, we see that in the time of the Shabbetai Tzevi controversy, people had to account for the opposition of some very frum-seeming rabbis against their mashiach. The answer was that these rabbis, deliberately or innocently, had something spiritually wrong with them, were the erev rav, etc., an idea which manifests itself nowadays. (The erev rav are associated with machlokes shelo leshem shamayim according to Tikkunei Zohar.)