Excess Baggage

It was said here that the Chabad dynasty was a build up of messianic meaning, it was not just the Rebbe in the 20th century going messianic, it is more accurate to describe him as the Chabad messianic candidate.

Already during the term of number 5, Shalom Dov-Ber Schneurson (he was the father of the Rayatz number 6, he was the son of number 4 the Maharash) began taking action and started dialogue that was proactive messianic tension building.

The Rayatz, Yitchak Yoseph, attributed messianic meaning to the many works and the circumstances of the world of his own predecessor father.  

Thus Menachem Mendel entered onto an existing podium… 

Mobilizing the Troops

The following decades were extremely active under the leadership of the 7th Rebbe, and the Chabad followers, the activists, attributed it all with messianic apocalyptic meaning.

For example, all the emissaries, the Shlichim of Chabad around the world, sent to reach Jews everywhere with encouragement and accessibility to Judaism functions and deeds, and the campaigns of the “Mitzvot” tanks, and the campaign of the Rebbe to advocate the 7 commandments of Noah for gentile folks… all of these had messianic titles and descriptions.

Super Suggestive

The Rebbe spoke of his father in law as the messiah of his generation, which was indirectly stating that he is the messiah of the following then current generation. 

Throughout the years, the Rebbe spoke of in third person the coming of Messiah soon. In Hebrew soon and close are the same word.

Anyhow, he did not say “I am he”. He never made a direct statement that he is Messiah. He was just surrounded by everything but that.

Some might say that he was suggestive to his audience, and suggestive is enough, in that context, to determine that he had determined and communicated that he is Messiah. 

The followers clearly understood to attribute Messiah to him, their Rebbe, in his lifetime. But in retrospect, in the aftermath, the question is there. Was he? Did he?

Another name used for him was Ramamash, in Hebrew the acronym רממ”ש, the Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneurson. In the name is the word - mamash, which could mean - fulfillment, manifestation, forerealization, or real, for real, or verily.

This mamash is not so rare of a word to use in religious writings, but he used it more often, in a seemingly suggestive way, homiletically, to say for example Messiah will come soon mamash, literally, he will come really soon, but perhaps this was a code word, for him - the Messiah, Menachem Mendel Schneurson, will come soon. (Mamash could also be an acronym for Mashiach Menachem Shmo.)

Your Sons and Daughters

He (objectively, empirically) did not have children. No sons or daughters. And no one knew why. It is unknown if their problem was biological, or perhaps a divine intervention. (No one dares to suggest it was somehow intentional by them.)

Traditionally the lack of sons, lack of an heir, was perceived as suggestive of the father without sons to be the Messiah, because it could not otherwise pass to the next generation. From the outside, this seems bizarre.

But within context of great mystical leaders, who are messianic candidates with messianic potential and spiritual power, whose authority is passed on to their heir, especially when it is to a son in a dynastic bloodline system...

Then the messianic hope and adoration towards the leader without a son means that it MUST be him! Because it wasn’t his father, and he has no sons to pass that potential onto, so it must be him. 

The two classic cases of this of course were Nachman of Breslev, whose infant son died, and he was depressed, but also carried more messianic hopes upon his own shoulders to carry. And the case of the Lubavitcher Rebbe is the other. 

There were no sons to the Rebbe, the 7th Tsaddik, nor did he appoint any type of heir and this is another objective empirical item.

Maybe in the case of Chabad it was problematic to appoint an heir because there was this idea of 7 tsaddikim. But nonetheless, he did not appoint, which was suggestive of his messianic stature. 

Nachman of Breslev also did not appoint an heir, and this was his new Hasidic court, so he definitely could have - it’s not like it was an end to a long bloodline Hasidic dynasty, he was the first. But he didn’t. And that was perceived as an intentional messianic decision. 

[The probable intentionality of not appointing an heir in the case of Nachman of Breslev was more because of his elevated stature of being the eternal Tsaddik, while in the case of Menachem Mendel Schneurson of Chabad it was more the tradition of 7 tsaddikim, and that was it. ]

Anyhow, there were Chabad adherents around the world with beepers waiting for the notice that the actual redemption had begun and it was time to go for it, move to Israel and all. There were even plans, protocols of sorts, to arrange massive aircrafts to fly Jews to Israel from Brooklyn. Imagine that.