Lubavitch Chasidim in Crown Heights revved up their Mitzvah tanks this week to celebrate their rebbe’s 92nd birthday on Wednesday.
But instead of following their usual route across the city from the Brooklyn Bridge, this year the converted trailers embarked from Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan, where Rabbi Menachem Schneerson lay in critical condition following the massive stroke he suffered on March 10.
Supporters of the rebbe were using his birthday, which falls on the 11th of Nissan according to the Hebrew calendar, to encourage what one Lubavitch leader called “introspection and action.”
From varying points on the Lubavitch political spectrum, news conferences, media alerts and legislation heralded the coming of the Messiah or, alternatively, the need to perform mitzvot, or commandments, to help the rebbe’s recovery.
At a news conference at the hospital on Monday, Lubavitch spokesman Rabbi Yehudah Krinsky faced clusters of microphones and television cameras to set forth a birthday plea.
“Start with one act of kindness, to one other person, and soon these individual acts will multiply into a world truly transformed.” he said.
This message was echoed in a full-page advertisement taken out by a Lubavitch organization in Monday’s New York Times, where– beneath a life-size portrait of the rebbe– readers were asked to give the ailing leader “the gift he really wants.”
“Give charity, study Torah, say a prayer, think about your purpose in life, be a source of inspiration to others,” the ad implored.
FOLLOWERS HOLD SPECIAL SERVICES
At the movement’s Chabad outreach centers around the world, followers held special services to pray for the rebbe’s recovery.
In Los Angeles, an estimated 1,000 supporters gathered at the Orthodox Beth Jacob Congregation for a special worship service.
And some in the Lubavitch community fasted Tuesday from sunrise to midday because of the rebbe’s condition.
In Washington, American Friends of Lubavitch hosted a reception on Capitol Hill and a dinner at a hotel on March 15 for a “U.S. Congressional Tribute to Education.”
Several hundred people, including members of Congress and Jewish organizational officials, gathered for the dinner, which marked the expected congressional passage and presidential approval of “Education and Sharing Day, U.S.A.” as the annual commemoration of the rebbe’s birthday.
The resolution passed in the House of Representatives by unanimous consent Monday, and was expected to be approved by the Senate.
Rabbi Abraham Shemtov of Philadelphia, a Lubavitch leader, said a Lubavitch delegation expected to meet with President Clinton after he signs the resolution.
But even the birthday celebrations highlighted the split between those in the movement who have vociferously promoted Schneerson as the Messiah and others closer to the rebbe himself, who emphasize the need for Jewish outreach and religious observance.
Rabbi Shmuel Butman, leader of the International Campaign to Bring the Messiah, gathered some 2,000 supporters outside Beth Israel on Tuesday to be at “the doorstep of the great revelation.”
Others continued the silent prayer and devotion which has been going on since the rebbe’s condition became critical.
(Contributing to this report was JTA correspondent Deborah Kalb in Washington).
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
