Some in Lubavitch Community Seeing Sign of Redemption in Rebbe’s Health

As Lubavitch Grand Rebbe Menachem Schneerson lies semiconscious in a Manhattan intensive care unit, following a stroke early Thursday, some Lubavitch leaders are viewing the rebbe’s illness, along with last week’s shooting of a Chasidic student on the Brooklyn Bridge, as a sign that redemption is near.

“This is the intensification of darkness which signals the coming light,” explained Rabbi Shmuel Butman, who heads the Lubavitch Youth Organization and who has been outspoken in the effort to promote Schneerson as the biblically prophesied Messiah.

Meanwhile, police in Brooklyn’s 71st precinct, where the Lubavitch movement is based, are preparing for “Operation Demise,” a massive contingency plan to cordon off the streets of Crown Heights and import thousands of police officers in the event of the rebbe’s death.

Ninety-one-year-old Schneerson, known simply as “the rebbe” to the hundreds of thousands of Lubavitch devotees worldwide, was first hospitalized Tuesday after suffering a series of seizures related to a previous stroke, which left his right side paralyzed.

At a news conference at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan where Schneerson is being treated, Dr. Matthew Fink, the director of neurology, said Thursday’s stroke “seriously weakened” the rebbe’s left side.

It was too early to gauge the extent of the damage or whether treatment will be effective, Fink said.

Schneerson — who has led the movement since 1950 — had been bedridden at Lubavitch headquarters in Crown Heights since a stroke two years ago left him almost completely debitlitated.

COMMUNITY STRUGGLING FOR SENSE OF SELF

In the shadow of his illness, political infighting over the future of the Lubavitch movement, along with ongoing criticism over the course of the rebbe’s medical care, revealed a community struggling to maintain its sense of self.

Despite the rebbe’s frail health, virtually no one in the Lubavitch movement is willing to publicly speculate on the future.

“The fervent hope and prayer is that he will get better,” said Rabbi Joseph Spielman, chairman of the Crown Heights Community Council. “There is no other agenda.”

Neil Gillman, an associate professor of philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York and longtime observer of the Lubavitch movement, predicted the rebbe’s death could be justified along the same theological lines that propelled him into potential Messiah status, without rupturing the movement.

“They will quickly conclude that the generation wasn’t ready, that they weren’t good enough,” Gillman said, referring to the Jewish belief that there is a potential Messiah in every generation who will be revealed if and when the world is ready.

But for the Lubavitchers — who have invested tremendously in a version of history that many say points to Schneerson as the Messiah — there is a determination to hold onto that vision, even in the face of the rebbe’s somber prognosis.

Under Schneerson’s guidance, the movement has reached out to unaffiliated and disenfranchised Jews with an appeal of firm laws and religious certainties. There are an estimated 1,500 Lubavitch centers wordwide performing outreach and religious services.

Much of the lure has been the intensity surrounding Schneerson himself, who offered personal directives on everything from marriage partners to Hurricane Andrew and the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

INNER CIRCLE KEEPS NORMALCY GOING

Even with the rebbe in a virtually vegetative state, his inner circle managed to maintain a semblance of normalcy in the community. With the rebbe gone, some predict the center of the movement could collapse into demoralization and disarray.

The situation is exacerbated by the fact that Schneerson, the seventh leader of the spiritual sect founded in 18th century Russia, has no heir.

Nevertheless, the movement’s leaders remain focused on the rebbe’s recovery.

Butman points out that, according to the Hebrew calendar, the most recent stroke occurred exactly two years to the day after the rebbe’s first stroke, in 1992.

“You can clearly see this is God’s hand,” Butman said.

And so, outside Beth Israel Medical Center, where Schneerson is reportedly in critical condition, hundreds of black-hatted followers huddled under umbrellas to recite prayers.

And in Lubavitch outposts across the globe, followers have intensified prayer and the observance of mitzvot, or religious commandments, in the hope of bringing their ailing leader a speedy recovery.

But a duty officer at the 71th Precinct in Crown Heights said police officials are monitoring the rebbe’s condition, which they describe as the most serious ever, and have put officers throughout New York on standby in the event that “Operation Demise” has to be implemented.

Police expect millions of visitors to Crown Heights in the event of a funeral.