After The Rebbe
Lubavitchers locally and globally have intensified efforts
at outreach and Torah living afier their leader died
LYNNE MEREDITH COHN
Staff Writer
founding of the sect, which started in
White Russia (now Byelorus) and
evolved, a spokesman says. Schneerson
ince the Lubavitcher rebbe,
was the seventh Lubavitch leader.
Menachem Mendel
Rabbi Chaim Bergstein, of Bais
Schneerson, died in June of
Chabad of Farmington Hills, says
1994 at the age of 92, not
locally, Lubavitch leaders have pulled
much has changed for his followers
closer together in the rebbe's absence.
around the world. And at the same
"From what I've seen, people are
time, everything is different.
more determined than ever to do this
In the rebbe's absence, Lubavitchers
— we're more united and more
say they have increased efforts at out-
focused on what we have to do
reach. The sect focuses on teaching
because we have to do it on our own
Jews about observance and tradition,
now," he says.
bringing them in to a Torah lifestyle
Although Lubavitchers certainly
one step at a time.
feel a sense of loss, they agree that the
The rebbe died without an appar-
rebbe remains among them — if not
ent successor; he had no children, and
physically, in spirit and in teaching.
selecting a rebbe is not like hiring a
Forty-two years of the rebbe's messages
CEO.
exist in print, on tape and on video.
Zalman Shmotkin, a spokesman at
Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, spokesman
Lubavitch World Headquarters in
for the worldwide Lubavitch move-
Brooklyn, explains that "a rebbe is not
ment and a leading member of its
a figurehead, somebody that you just
umbrella organization Agudas
thrust into office. The rebbe is an
Chasidei Chabad-Lubavitch, says the
entirely different order of human
intensification of efforts in Detroit is
being. A rebbe emerges ... either a per-
"a microcosm of what is happening to
son like that exists or does not. It's
Lubavitch nationally and internation-
clear no person like that exists [cur-
ally," with more than 2,000 institu-
rently]."
tions around the world.
"The question then is, what is
In the past two years, 200 new
Lubavitch going to do? I say, hold on
Lubavitch institutions have taken root,
a moment. The rebbe's life was not
Krinsky says, and the numbers of
about building, strengthening
shluchim (emissaries) and young cou-
Lubavitch. If anything, the rebbe sac-
ples going out to spread the message
rificed Lubavitch for the Jewish people
have risen.
and the world at-large. The rebbe was
"It really is very satisfying to note
completely about rebuilding, reinvigo-
that, contrary to the prophets of
rating the Jewish people. The question
doom [who expected], God forbid,
really is, what are the Jewish people
diminishing of Lubavitch, they've all
going to do without a person like this?
been proven false."
We have to look at this through the
The Chabad influence is certainly
prism of Torah and Jewish history.
growing in Detroit, with the
"Perhaps now that the rebbe set us
Lubavitch Foundation of Michigan's
on course and defined the agenda, the
Campus for Living Judaism set to be
rest of us are challenged by God to
built in West Bloomfield. The campus
finish implementing that agenda,"
will include the state's first Jewish col-
Shmotkin adds.
lege (the Michigan Jewish Institute),
This is the first time in roughly 230
run by Rabbi Kasriel Shemtov, and an
years that there is not a rebbe leading
extensive library (the Library of Living
the Lubavitcher sect of Chasidim.
Judaism), under the leadership of
Tanya, the seminal teaching of
Rabbi Aryeh Wuensch.
Chabad-Chasidus, was printed 200
Rabbi Yerachmiel Rabin, of the
years ago. There is no date for the
Huntington Woods Minyan, says,
S
-
9/19
1997
20
"The rebbe set up systems" within
Lubavitch to ensure smooth opera-
. tions after his passing.
"For example many people used to
ask the rebbe health questions, should
they have operations, should they not.
In later years, the rebbe said to ask
two opinions of doctors," Rabin
explains.
The rebbe also instructed that each
"person should have a mashpia —
someone within the Lubavitch com-
munity who you could talk things
over with. He made it more local ...
even if the person you feel closest to
lives on the other side of the world."
People used to spend hours in line
to meet the rebbe, get his blessing and
a dollar to give to charity. Now, they
pray at his grave in Queens at Old
Montefiore Cemetery. Some believed
that he was Moshiach (the Messiah).
Charia Finman, a Lubavitcher in
Oak Park, says there is "a splintering
of attitudes about what has happened
[regarding the rebbe's messianic sta-
tus], which is cool, it never has been
one idea — the only idea that was one
was [that] our feeling toward the
rebbe was united."
Detroit Lubavitchers all feel a sense
of loss, she notes. "Some people are
still mourning. But you're going to
find people who think this only bring.
the redemption closer."
"Everybody's trying to do what the
rebbe said, live up to the ideals that
the rebbe demanded — he always said
God never demands from the Jewish
people anything more than he equips
them to do, so when the rebbe made
his demands on the Chasidim, to ful-
fill Torah 10 steps more, share it with
other people, make them be Torah-
observant Jews, not only Torah-obser-
vant Jews but Chasidim who are excit-