born in the merry month of May.
his dreams would not be called a liar.
condemned in no peace, probably, to rest.
Max A. Kohanzad, in a thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of PhD in the Faculty of Humanities, 2006, writes in ‘The Messianic Doctrine of the Lubavitcher Rebbe – Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson’ in an article republished by academia.com:
The Rebbe avoided ever mentioning the word ‘Russia’, but rather referred to ‘that country’, and it was widely believed within the movement that he even caused the death of Stalin, with the combined power of his words and those of the community at a Hasidic gathering, on the Shabbat of Purim 1953, when they all chanted ‘Hoo Ra! Hoo Ra! Hoo Ra!’. This sounded like the common expression of joy and elation, but could be interpreted as Hebrew for ‘He is Evil! He is Evil! He is Evil!’. At this very same moment, thousands of miles away, on the 6th of March 1953 Stalin died. Thus the Rebbe was able to demonstrate the prophetic gift of being able to kill with the power of his words, even at a distance….
In 1985, prior to its actual downfall, the Rebbe asked one of his emissaries to talk to Michael Gorbachev about his plans for political reform. This emissary, so the story goes, was unable to meet Gorbachev until 1988, after he had begun the programme of Glasnost and Perestroika. Gorbachev was reportedly shocked by what the emissary had to say, because until 1987 he ‘hadn’t planned any political reforms at all’.
Later on in that same year, The Rebbe called upon the Israeli government to prepare for an unprecedented wave of immigrants from Russia, warning them of the need to construct more housing and to establish business centers. He also initiated the construction of a new neighbourhood in Jerusalem with world facilities ‘for the new immigrants’. At the time, no one understood his directives but of course, his predictions materialised.
What appears now like commonsense advice was at the time actually ignored by the Israeli government, because they thought that it was unlikely that Russia would release any of its Refuseniks, let alone millions of Russian Jews. It seemed unlikely that some old rabbi in Brooklyn would have better intelligence about Russia’s political situation and intentions than the Israeli government…..
Gershon Hepner is a poet who has written over 25,000 poems on subjects ranging from music to literature, politics to Torah. He grew up in England and moved to Los Angeles in 1976. Using his varied interests and experiences, he has authored dozens of papers in medical and academic journals, and authored “Legal Friction: Law, Narrative, and Identity Politics in Biblical Israel.” He can be reached at gershonhepner@gmail.com.