Is Meshichist Chabad Lubavitch still Judaism?

[rhu]

Ma'ariv (an Israeli newspaper) reports that someone who has been studying for conversion to Judaism under Chabad Lubavitch auspices has been turned down by the religious court on the basis that his belief that Rabbi Schneerson is still alive and is the messiah is incompatible with core Jewish beliefs. (At least, that's how I understand it.) The case is now on appeal.

Finally, someone in power has said it!

Comments

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Love it! I wonder how this'll turn out...

[fauxklore]

The problem is that there isn't a central authority in Judaism to really make a determination on this. It would be interesting if Yona Metzger (the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel) weighed in. About the only other rabbis who I think would have the same influence would be Sir Jonathan Sacks (Chief Rabbi of the UK) or maybe some major Rosh Yeshiva in the U.S.

More practically, nobody Chasidic is going to care what a mitnagged says, nobody within Chabad is going to care what another Chassidic rav says, and Sephardim and Mizrachim will consider this an Ashkenazi thing that has nothing to do with them. (But, in general, the Sephardi chief rabbis over the year have been more liberal than the Ashkenazi chief rabbis on the "who is a Jew" question, at least as it has affected the Beta Israel and, for that matter, Georgian Karaites.)

[autotruezone.livejournal.com]

It should be noted that not all Lubavitchers believe that R. Schneerson is the messiah. Note that the original article appears to make this distinction by referring to "messianic" chabadnikim (presumably, to distinguish them from those chabadnikim who don't hold this belief).

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

Point taken, and I will edit the subject of this posting accordingly. (Although it does seem, from my limited experience, that chabadniks can be divided into meshichists and closet meshichists.)