Abstract
The article deals with the social construction of the charisma of the seventh leader (rebbe) of the Jewish Chabad movement, Menachem Mendel Schneerson (19021994). The comprehensive analysis of the charismatic carrier of the leader shows the process by which the spiritual power of Schneerson moved from a classical (according to Weber) interaction between charisma and a community that recognizes this power to a identification of his figure with the Messiah. Schneerson and the Chabad movement actually represent an effort to modernize one of the two tendencies present in the Chassidic tradition concerning the figure of Messiah: in contrast with the idea that considers not predictable the arrival of Messiah, Chabad, particularly because of the Schneerson's charisma, believe the advent of Messiah imminent. The task of the leader consequently is to pay attention on the premonitory signs of the forthcoming event. The identification between charisma and Messiah in Chabad movement represents a case study of extreme messianism that means a real impasse to solve and rule the question of succession of charisma after the death of the Rebbe.
Highlights
The article deals with the social construction of the charisma of the seventh leader of the Jewish Chabad movement, Menachem Mendel Schneerson (19021994)
Reducing to a thumb-nail Gershom Scholem’s (Idel, 2004; Scholem, 1993) important work on this subject, we offer the following diagram: A) The Messiah will arrive when all Jews OBSERVE THE MOSAIC LAW
One of the greatest thinkers of our times, Levinas (1961) pondered at length on this question. He opted to side with those who maintain that the messianic age coincides with mankind’s hopes to see the historical triumph of the end of violence and the establishment of a society founded on justice
Summary
Before briefly outlining the characteristics of this movement with its headquarters in Crown Heights, New York, it is worth summarizing the various conceptions of messianism in Judaism. Reducing to a thumb-nail Gershom Scholem’s (Idel, 2004; Scholem, 1993) important work on this subject, we offer the following diagram: A) The Messiah will arrive when all Jews OBSERVE THE MOSAIC LAW resulting in the millenary variant: the advent of the Kingdom of God on Earth. B) The Messiah will arrive at THE END OF TIME resulting in the apocalyptic variant: the end of the world and the Last Judgement. Because the coming of the Messiah was no longer deemed imminent, at the end of the eighteenth century both interpretations were superseded by the notion of being at the service of God in exile. After the Shoa, the distinction between the two orientations was reestablished: A1)
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