ABSTRACT
The saner elements of the Lubavitch movement were appalled by the messianic campaign launched by extremists. The mass hysteria during his funeral – some proclaimed that the rebbe was immortal and expected him to rise from the dead – made Lubavitch look macabre and absurd. Some Habad leaders admitted that things had gotten out of hand and that the proclamation of the rebbe as the Messiah had caused much harm. Habad literature is dominated by the certainty that the Messiah is due, with clear hints that he is the rebbe himself. The Lubavitch messianic campaign is one of countless similar movements in Jewish history, which invariably have brought havoc to the Jews. The rebbe is one of scores of pseudo Messiahs in the past 2,000 years. The shock of messianic betrayal and disappointment was felt generations later in many of the central movements in Jewish life.
