The eye of the hurricane through the rear view mirror

Taking Chaim Yavich Express No. 67 from Ohel to 5767.

I found it interesting that they have the Rebbe�s wrist watch on the bimah.

The seider vet zein azoy, there will be the following schedule. First there will be a revelation of the Rebbe Melech Hamoshiach, takef u meyad mamash. Then we will Daven Maariv. Then Havdolah. After Havdola there will be halukas of kois she brocho �me yado hamleyo uvepsucho�. The congregation starts chanting �Ad Mosay�.

The debate about the future of Chabad is academic. Although many prefer not to talk about �what�s going on in the basement�. It seems that due to their numbers and the energy mechichiten are unstoppable. I don�t see how legal arguments about the ownership of the building can change this fact. I have never seen so many people in 770 when the Rebbe was alive. Certainly all the known messiahs did not have the number of believers just ten years after. The movement simply no longer exists as a unified ideological entity. The brand has split. There are now Chabad intellectuals who rationalize that the messianic idea is a binding human condition that unites Rome, Teheran and Jerusalem!

It occurred to me that people who always considered the Rebbe to be inanimate object are merely continuing with the approach. The trust of most vulnerable Jews have been outsourced by the Rebbe himself to these very people.

I have been told that Crown Heights became more cosmopolitan in the recent years but I saw a much more homogenous neighborhood. People are tired on RH but there was a certain bland washed out uniform expression on many faces. It feels draining. It�s a shut down, expressionless, monotonous grind. The machine is everything. Paradoxically while nominally embracing outreach, Chabad continues to repel discontented, at least around the headhunters of Eastern Parkway it is all about black silk marching in step, chanting with infantile certainty. The childish subconscious cruelty was once again vivid.

For Sephardim this comes naturally.

So it no surprise that the father wears Yechi and his son Na, Na. It is the same marketing segment and target audience. Just like a cross was a tangible sign of the believers there is a Hebrew sea of yellow pins waving.