Hope springs eternal in the human breast;

Man never Is, but always To be blest.

The soul, uneasy, and confin'd from home,

Rests and expatiates in a life to come. -- Alexander Pope

Hope, in Judaism, reaches its spiritual apex with the belief in Messiah -- Moshiach to those who speak in the original tongue -- and in the dawn of an era of peace, love and holiness on earth which this man's coming will herald.

For liberal Jews, the Messiah may be a mere metaphor, a symbol of a utopian ideal -- not literally real, but certainly a goal of human perfection toward which it is worthy to strive.

For observant Jews, the Messiah is real, the ultimate delivery of a prophesied Divine promise, the culmination and reward for mankind's eons of struggle and trial. Although this belief is anchored in centuries of faith and based on several Jewish sources, most Orthodox Jews see the coming of the Messiah and his times as an event whose timing and details are ultimately unknowable to Man -- and as an event that has not yet occurred.

In the world of Lubavitch chasidim, however -- very possibly the world's largest Jewish organization -- a substantial and growing community of Jews has come to believe that the time of Messiah may not only be very near, but now.

These "messianist" Lubavitchers have attracted considerable attention in the Jewish and non-Jewish worlds, both for the intensity of their belief and the near militancy with which they sometimes express it. They interest the media, fascinate many observers and horrify many Jews precisely because their messianic faith is personally focused, specific and, according to some, already consummated.

To this community, the Messiah is their leader -- Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, known within and without his community as the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

The world of Lubavitch chasidim, also known by the acronym Chabad, has long focused on Moshiach. In fact, the hope for the Messiah's coming, and the work that human beings should do in order to hasten that coming, would become the paramount spiritual message of Rabbi Schneerson, especially later in his life when he made Moshiach the central pillar of his movement's religious message.

The highly charismatic rebbe assumed the reins of the movement from his father, the "elder rebbe," shortly after the Holocaust, when Chabad relocated from Eastern Europe to the US. Gradually but surely, the rebbe's highly effective leadership and the enthusiastic energy of his followers assured the movement's steady growth, not only in the US, but in Israel and eventually in many locales in its original home of Eastern Europe and Russia, as well as all other continents.

The Lubavitch movement is poised to be a major influence, especially in the many parts of the world lacking indigenous rabbinical schools. Views of the movement on Moshiach will be influential far beyond the borders of its own institutions and adherents.

As the movement grew and intensified from its adopted base in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, focus grew on the possibility that the rebbe himself was Moshiach. Although Rabbi Schneerson never directly made such a claim himself -- and is said to have actually discouraged such speculation on several occasions -- he did make a few vague remarks or comments that "messianist" followers soon seized upon.

In spite of his own efforts, the movement dedicated to the rebbe's supposed messiahship grew, until it began to be widely noticed outside Chabad itself. It grew not only numerically, but in terms of fervor.

It grew so strong, in fact, that the belief even survived the rebbe's own death. When his passing came, in June, 1994, many Lubavitchers mourned the rebbe's natural demise, while many others refused to surrender their messianist beliefs.

Raising more than eyebrows in much of the Jewish world, including Orthodoxy, messianist Lubavitchers insisted that that the rebbe would soon rise from the dead to proclaim the messianic age. This belief, they insisted, was not inconsistent with the general belief in the times of Messiah, which, many Orthodox Jews believe, will include a massive resurrection of the dead.

Others proclaimed that Rabbi Schneerson had not died at all, but had gone into hiding to await the proper time to announce his coming as the Messiah.

Still others -- a very small group -- went so far as to declare the very divinity of the rebbe, a claim that, to many Jews, was not only blasphemous but bore far too many chilling comparisons with Christianity -- an earlier and very successful Jewish messianist breakaway movement.

Much of the Jewish world opted to ignore the messianist wings of the Chabad movement, perhaps hoping that they would simply vanish over time, while others -- particularly those in the non-chasidic and modern Orthodox communities -- rushed to condemn these beliefs and to distance themselves from them. To many Orthodox Jews, the ideas of a resurrected messiah, let alone a divine rebbe, are sheer anathema.

Published this fall, a book by a respected Orthodox history professor with a specialization in Christian-Jewish relations, Rabbi David Berger, strongly articulated the argument against the legitimacy of belief in the Lubavitcher Rebbe as Moshiach. The book's title, The Rebbe, The Messiah and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference, also expressed Rabbi Berger's criticism of those who choose to ignore the messianist claims, and the dangers to normative Judaism which he feels such beliefs pose.

Whether or not Rabbi Berger's warnings of danger are justified, the messianist movement has certainly created divisions. Within Lubavitch itself, messianists and non-messianists are said to be vying for power within the movement -- still without an individual leader more than seven years after the rebbe's death -- although there are signs that a stronger sense of unity seems to be holding, at least for the present.

In Judaism as a whole, old antipathies toward chasidism in general and Lubavitch specifically have been given new strength, with many commentators equating all Lubavitchers with messianists and dismissing them as religious fanatics, even as idolaters.

The Intermountain Jewish News, seeking a regional perspective on the debate, discovered that such broad-brush judgments may be exaggerated. The IJN spoke with Lubavitch rabbis in the Rocky Mountain region -- including Colorado, in which Chabad has been active since the late 1970s -- and discovered that Lubavitch views on the subject of Messiah are complex.

The region's Lubavitch rabbis expressed differences on the rebbe's role as Messiah. Some leaned strongly in a positive or in a negative direction, and others said they did not know the true answer, although none provided an absolute "yes" or "no" response to the basic question of whether the rebbe is, in fact, the Messiah.

Each of them, however, emphasized that Moshiach remains a central pillar of their spiritual quest, often using words like "soon" or "imminent" in reference to his coming.

The hope, at least, and the expectation, remain very much alive.

Rabbi Yisroel Popack

Lubavitch of Colorado

A veteran Lubavitch leader who knew the rebbe personally -- and a man who says he has read and studied virtually everything the rebbe ever wrote -- Rabbi Popack is clear that first, people should not speculate on the personal identity of Moshiach and second, that the rebbe did not want his slichim -- the rabbinical emissaries who manage Chabad's huge network of outreach and worship services across the world -- to spread that message.

"I heard the rebbe myself saying that to people," Rabbi Popack says. "To one person he said that if he hears it again that he wouldn't have a farbrengen (gathering) with people who say that. He said that numerous times."

Still, Rabbi Popack adds, we are living "in a time which is getting close to the coming of Moshiach."

In other words, just because the messianists who believe the rebbe to be Moshiach are wrong to say so, doesn't mean that messianic times aren't close at hand.

"According to the Torah we should study what the Torah is about, observe mitzvot, do good deeds, both Jews and non-Jews," Rabbi Popack says. "This will have a positive effect on the entire world. By us bringing in light it will drive out darkness.

"But to say who the Moshiach is . . . the Lubavitch policy is to do only what the rebbe told us, and he told us numerous times not to say that."

Those who do say it do not represent the majority of Chabad, says Rabbi Popack, who reports that at a recent international gathering of slichim in New York, the subject was hardly raised.

"If it was mentioned," he says, "it was something that was laughed upon."

Rabbi Popack adds that he can understand why some people are doing this, because it is a venerable Jewish tradition to speculate upon which tzaddik, or righteous man, might or might not fulfill the various scriptural and textual criteria considered necessary for a potential Messiah. Still, "the Torah says that nobody will know until he comes."

The debate is not splitting the movement apart, he adds, since messianists and non-messianists have more or less agreed to disagree on the sensitive subject.

"The movement is in itself very, very strong. It doesn't take away from the fact that we can't be friends. They [messianists] are not saying this as a halachic thing; they're saying it as an emotional thing."

Rabbi Yisroel Engel

Lubavitch of Colorado

"It's not a simple question and it's not easy to answer in one or two words," replies Rabbi Engel, one of the original Chabad rabbis in the Denver area, to the basic question: Is the rebbe the Messiah?

He prefaces his response by noting how profound an influence Rabbi Schneerson had on his own life. As a youth Rabbi Engel showed great promise as an engineer, but opted for the spiritual course because of the rebbe's powerful message.

"It was the rebbe who gave me the inspiration to follow the lifestyle that I still live today. Something the rebbe always stressed was the idea that every good deed we do brings us a step closer to Moshiach, the Messiah. This continues with me until today, and I consider it very important that every positive deed that I do, whether between myself and my fellow man or between myself and G-d, is not only special in itself but brings more light into the world and brings us closer to Moshiach."

But the question of the Messiah's identity was decidedly not a part of the rebbe's teachings, in Rabbi Engel's view.

"Never, either through the things he said or the people he inspired, did the rebbe touch upon the issue of the identity of Moshiach," he says. "Instead it was an issue of inspiration and bringing ourselves and the world closer to Moshiach. As a matter of fact, the rebbe did not like it when anyone would ascribe any messianic role to the rebbe. He would definitely not enjoy or appreciate what's going on today when people ascribe things to him as far as being the Moshiach."

The so-called messianists come from a cadre largely based in Crown Heights, and are, as a rule, distinct from the front-line Lubavitchers, the emissaries like himself.

"They are doing it because of their personal feelings," he says of these believers, "but that shifts the issue from one of moving forward and instead is something that I think is detrimental. When people focus on the issue of whether the rebbe is Moshiach or not, it puts everything in a different focus. It focuses on a non-issue. It's very painful."

Rabbi Engel's take on Lubavitch teaching is that "we don't just sit back passively waiting for Moshiach but we work actively to bring him. That should be the focus and will hasten the coming of the Moshiach."

Asked about claims as to the divinity of the rebbe, Rabbi Engel points out how fundamentally un-Jewish such a notion is. He echoes most Lubavitchers who agree that one of the most striking differences between Jews and Christians is that the latter consider a man to be G-d. The Messiah, who must be a man according to Biblical prophecy, can therefore not be divine.

"To say such a thing is obviously absurd," Rabbi Engel says. "It's absolutely contrary to everything in Judaism."

While the messianist faction within Chabad is significant, he adds, "it's not as many as they make it sound. I don't know how many there are, but they always make the papers and make people talk about it. I would not say that this is causing any split of any sort. As a matter of fact, every one of us who deals with the Jewish community are all unanimous in this regard. We don't go around claiming the rebbe to be the Moshiach or teaching that to people."

In Rabbi Engel's opinion, Chabadniks who are drawn to the Moshiach-rebbe idea are doing so out of an emotional need and sense of loss. He says frankly that he can identify with that emotion himself.

"The relationship that people had with the rebbe was very strong. The rebbe is very central to the life of a chasid, who looks to the rebbe for sources and inspiration and guidance. It's definitely clear cut that the rebbe's passing was a loss for all of us. Every one of us has a yearning and desire to see the rebbe. While that feeling of loss, of missing him, is certainly there, people such as myself feel that we're continuing the rebbe's legacy. The rebbe encouraged the world to do more mitzvahs, add more light, but the loss is definitely still there."

Instead of merely waiting for the rebbe to appear and announce the messianic age, Rabbi Engel feels, his followers should be performing good deeds, actively fulfilling the prophecies relating to the Messiah's coming.

He paraphrases John Kennedy: "Ask not what Moshiach can do for you, but what you can do for Moshiach. That's really the thing that motivates us. The Moshiach's coming is imminent and it will be a world free of jealousy, evil and killing. The main focal point is that everything that I do or anyone else does -- every human being, Jewish and non-Jewish -- makes this place a little more receptive and closer for his coming. That's the beautiful message we share with others."

Rabbi Pesach Scheiner

Lubavitch of Boulder

Like virtually all of the rabbis interviewed for this article, Rabbi Scheiner did not provide an absolute, black-and-white answer on his own beliefs relating to the Messiah, but his words do provide a strong hint.

"One of the greatest halachic deciders of our generation, one of the greatest legal scholars of our time, was Rabbi Aharon Soloveichik," he says. "He gave out a very clear ruling, which clearly brings multiple sources, that those who believe in the rebbe as the Moshiach are acting fully in the scope of Jewish law and in the scope of Orthodoxy."

Soloveichik's ruling has added significance in the fact that he "was not Chabad chasid or a Chabad disciple," Rabbi Scheiner says, and that the ruling came from careful study, not just the heart.

"It's a free country but it's not a free country according to Jewish law," he says. "This is based very strongly on Jewish writings."

Rabbi Scheiner is undeterred by the fact that the late Rabbi Soloveichik also wrote letters suggesting the opposite of the one to which he refers, and that many who knew Rabbi Soloveichik, who suffered a debilitating stroke in the 1980s, questioned his state of mind at the time he wrote it. The controversy surrounding Rabbi Soloveichik's true views on the subject goes on today and is covered at length in Rabbi Berger's book.

For his part, Rabbi Scheiner derides Berger as "an expert in Christianity" and "a bitter opponent of Chabad."

The comparison Berger and others make between messianist Chabadniks and Christians is specious and false, he contends. "It's a crooked way of looking at things. Jews never viewed themselves by comparison to other religions. We don't do anything because of other religions and we don't refrain from doing anything because of other sources."

More important, Rabbi Scheiner says he doesn't really understand why the messianist belief is so threatening to other Jews.

"If someone wishes to follow this, I don't see what the commotion is. It gives hope. A normal reaction should be 'I hope these people are right.'"

Scheiner is very clear on how he thinks Moshiach will manifest himself, and says that the idea of the rebbe's personal resurrection is not at all out of sync with accepted Orthodox Jewish beliefs of the messianic age.

"We believe there will be a resurrection of all the dead when the Messiah comes. The resurrection of the dead is a concept of Judaism that everybody agrees with. When it will actually occur is not clear. The Zohar says that righteous people will resurrect right at the beginning of the process."

He is equally clear on the radical belief in the rebbe's supposed divinity.

"Absolutely every movement has crazies," Rabbi Scheiner maintains. "I don't know if you could find 10 people that believe in this divinity stuff. It's not at all accepted in Chabad, while the concept of the rebbe as Moshiach is very strong within the movement."

He refrains from characterizing that strength in numeric terms, but does not feel that the Moshiach movement has split, or is splitting, Chabad.

"An honest answer is that in the beginning it did split the movement to a strong degree, but as time elapses, and as this idea continues breathing with the movement, it hardly splits the movement. The dust has settled. Different people have different beliefs and there's no reason to have friction. Who doesn't disagree in the Jewish world?"

Rabbi Aharon Sirota

Western Center

for Russian Jewry

Rabbi Sirota, one of the earliest Lubavitch slichim in Denver and now head of a Chabad outreach program for Russian Jewish immigrants, says it's impossible to know the identity of Moshiach until an announcement is made.

By then, he says, it will be obvious and beyond any debate.

Maimonides' Laws of the Kings is generally accepted as a pivotal source on messianic matters, and Rabbi Sirota says that the extensive criteria outlined there will have to be met before anything can start.

That obviously hasn't happened yet, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the rebbe is not Moshiach, he says -- just that it's impossible to say. The idea that a man might die and then be resurrected as the Messiah is something the Talmud acknowledges as a possibility, Rabbi Sirota says, so such an event cannot be ruled out.

"But this is not the real issue of Lubavitch," he hastens to clarify. "The whole concept of Moshiach , according to the Lubavitch point of view, is to bring redemption to the world. What people do will help make redemption a reality. Every mitzvah brings the world closer to redemption. When we are living like we are supposed to be living, then the door will open and the Moshiach will enter."

The time for Messiah, in Rabbi Sirota's view, could be any time, including the present, so long as "we act like redemption is here. We have to prepare for the redemption. How? By learning the concepts of redemption and Moshiach, which is a very vast amount of literature, by studying Talmud, Midrash and Torah."

Rabbi Sirota shares the widely held Lubavitch belief that the messianic age is imminent, and that the world is currently seeing such a proliferation of evil -- the events of Sept. 11, the recent terrorism in Israel, etc. -- because the forces of evil realize that their end is near. He compares such forces to a wrestler thrown to the ground, summoning his final strength in one final gasp at victory.

"Now the world's evil is putting up a struggle, which testifies that there is soon to be an end to the golus, the exile. The evil is trying in every way it can . . . because we are coming closer to the redemption."

His conclusion: "Who will be the Moshiach? Basically, I don't care. The rebbe said the Messiah will bring peace and redemption to the world, but we have to do our part. Ask the people to learn more about Moshiach and redemption, because this is one of the main beliefs of the Jewish religion. It's a pity that so many people know nothing about these concepts, even in the Torah community."

Rabbi Mendel Mintz

Chabad of Aspen,

Jewish Resource Center

"The rebbe sent many emissaries throughout the world to enhance the Jewish community," Rabbi Mintz says of his own profession, practiced in the exclusive resort of Aspen -- where yet another Chabad outpost exists.

"Every observant Jew who prays three times a day prays for the rebuilding of the Temple, prays for Jerusalem, so needless to say every Jew is hoping for the coming of the Moshiach.

"So, to a large degree, we're waiting, and as long as we are out working in the field, he hasn't come.The rebbe's goal was to make this world a G-dly place, to encourage people to love one another . . . and as long as that goal isn't reached, we have to get more people to follow the rebbe's teachings."

Rabbi Mintz makes it clear that the rebbe was an extremely important person. When asked whether he believe the rebbe to be the Messiah, he responds only by calling him "larger than life, the leader of the Jewish people, the Moses of our time."

He does say, however, that messianist claims, and certain answers to them, have become ammunition in the guns of "certain people who may be bitter and who are trying to be divisive."

That includes Rabbi Berger, the recent author, who's "clearly very bitter and trying to be divisive within the Jewish community."

Such furtherance of internecine strife among Jews is the very antithesis of what Chabad stands for, Rabbi Mintz says.

"Chabad is active in the Jewish community to be together," he says. "All the years of the rebbe's life never once could one find a word of criticism against another Jew. The whole purpose of the rebbe's life was to unite the Jewish world. We don't label any Jews. Labels are for shirts. We're here to make the world a better place and to fulfill our part in creation."

As a rule, Rabbi Mintz adds, Lubavitch leaders are holding to that role. At the recent International Conference of Chabad Rabbis in New York, the Messiah issue was hardly raised at all, Rabbi Mintz says, which suggests that the movement is staying unified despite the issue.

"It was a non-issue. Instead we discussed how do we go out and answer our communities' needs. How do we encourage them to better our lives, to do our part of creation. There's no divisiveness. Chabad is one big family -- one big family with one leader, one father."

Rabbi Yossi Serebryanski

Chabad of South Denver

Rabbi Serebryanski, the newest Chabad rabbi in Denver, recently opened a Lubavitch outreach organization in the south metro area. He comes from a position as a psychologist at the Rabbinical College of America in Morristown, NJ, a major Lubavitch post high school yeshiva.

He is reluctant to give a definitive answer to the basic "yes-no" question, saying that the situation is highly complex, involving many factors, and that it should not be reduced to such simplistic terms.

Still, the strong tenor of Rabbi Serebryanski's remark indicate that he sides with those who do not accept messianist claims. "The Moshiach is not here," he says simply, expressing considerable discomfort with the whole idea of a resurrected Messiah.

A considerable background -- political and power-based -- underlies the Lubavitch Moshiach debate, he says. The author Berger largely missed this point by, in Serebryanski's opinion, miscasting the debate in mostly theological, and not political, terms.

As Rabbi Serebryanski sees it, the question involves dynamics that predate the death of the rebbe, or even the intensive discussion as to whether he is the Messiah. There is a longstanding dispute, if not downright hostility, between three primary factions within the movement: those who are centered in Crown Heights, and have constituted the top-level leadership of the movement; the extensive network of slichim; and a small but highly vocal group of mostly ba'alei teshuvah, Sephardic Israelis based in the city of Safed.

In many ways, it was and still is a "simple power grab" between factions that have traditionally distrusted one another, Rabbi Serebryanski says.

The factions, however, also articulate widely differing messianic beliefs, with some concluding that the rebbe simply was not the Messiah; others stating that he might have been or could have been but ultimately was not; others opting for the idea of resurrection; and still others for the idea that the rebbe never, in fact, physically died.

Rabbi Serebryanski has nothing but the highest praise for Rabbi Schneerson. Although the rebbe made a number of comments relating to his potential role as Moshiach, Rabbi Serebryanski says these have been mostly misunderstood.

One such comment, made not long before his death -- a comment which Rabbi Serebryanski heard personally -- was, in his view, a plaintive comment about how the Messiah had not yet come and an appeal to his followers, asking for their ideas on the subject. In Rabbi Serebryanski's view, the comment was mistakenly taken by many followers as a hint that Schneerson was the Messiah.

Another comment, made by the rebbe shortly after assuming leadership of the movement in the late 1940s, was that he fully expected the Messiah to appear in the coming generation.

These comments and others have been taken by the messianists as encouraging proof that the rebbe and the Messiah are one. This is hardly surprising, Rabbi Serebryanski says, since belief in Moshiach is such a central part of Chabad theology.

He admits that is not immune to this draw himself. The hope for the Messiah is and has always been a cornerstone of his Judaism. "I look forward to Moshiach's coming," he says, "simply because the rebbe was an important inspiration for what I'm doing now."

Yet, he concludes, it just doesn't appear to be so.

"It hasn't happened yet. How do you explain that? How could the rebbe leave us with the job unfinished? It's a good question, and I don't know the answer."

The whole focus on the rebbe's role as Messiah has, in truth, taken away from the movement and its work, in Rabbi Serebryanski's opinion. "I think the rebbe would be deeply distressed, if not angry, at this debate of whether he's the Moshiach or not," he says.

What Rabbi Serebryanski doesn't like about the whole thing is that the Messiah issue has forced him to respond to something he really has nothing to do with.

"They're forcing me to respond to their agenda. I have to respond, so they've gotten somewhere."

Rabbi Berel Levertov

Chabad of Santa Fe

There's no denying that the Lubavitch movement has been mourning the death of its leader for nearly eight years, says Santa Fe's Rabbi Levertov.

"It's a very sad issue," he says. "The death of the rebbe is one of the pains we're going through right now. We miss him very dearly. The world misses him very strongly, especially in times like today. But the issue is being clouded by a few individuals who have changed his message to one in which he is the focus of being Moshiach. Which is nonsense. It hurts what Lubavitch stands for."

In applying the term Moshiach to Rabbi Schneerson, messianists have totally distorted the word and the belief, in Rabbi Levertov's view.

"I don't even understand what that term means. It doesn't fit into what Judaism says. I know people say that but I don't think they know what they're saying. We all pray for Moshiach and we all pray for the resurrection of the dead. It's a very strong hope. We hope this is going to save the day, especially after what happened in Israel on Saturday (Dec. 1). It's shattering."

But only when the real Messiah comes will the rebbe return, as part of the resurrection of the righteous dead, Rabbi Levertov says. "Right before he became ill he asked everybody to help bring Moshiach, to pray for it, and to do good deeds. It didn't happen, but we still want it to happen."

To turn the focus onto the rebbe as the Messiah "obscures the message" of the rebbe's own work through the decades.

As to its effect on the movement, "I don't think it's splitting it into two camps," he says. "There's so much Lubavitch stands for that we agree on. The people who have that feeling, many of them live a very sheltered life in Crown Heights in Brooklyn. They're not realizing that they're doing harm to others, but it's not breaking the movement. No one gains by arguing. Let it settle and let G-d take care of the rest," Rabbi Levertov says.

Although he acknowledges that some followers are engaged in a power struggle, and others merely want to attract attention -- both of which motives may be behind some of the messianist furor -- Rabbi Levertov feels that many believers believe simply because it's "a yearning," or a spiritual attachment to the rebbe. "I would hope it comes from a positive side," he says.

Rabbi Levertov wants the rebbe's work to continue, no matter how one believes. He advocates a national Chabad project to put a charity box, a pushke, in all American homes -- not just Jewish -- as a response to the evil of Sept. 11.

"Continue doing good things," he says, "instead of discussing what people believe or don't believe. The world is waiting for Moshiach and the world still needs to be repaired."

Rabbi Chaim Schmukler

Chabad of New Mexico,

Albuquerque

Rabbi Schmukler's basic point of view is that to concentrate on the specifics of the question of whether Moshiach and the rebbe are synonymous is to miss the mark.

"The question is really halachic," he says. "According to Halachah, is this right? It's not a question of someone's opinion or taste. If you speak of faith, you have to ask what makes it real. How can we do it?"

Belief in the Messiah is a central pillar of the Jewish faith, perhaps even more so in the Lubavitch movement which relies greatly on the messianic message of hope. Indeed, the primary focus of its work is to bring about the coming of the Messiah -- not something to be taken lightly.

"Jewish belief is not about going to heaven, it's about bringing heaven down to earth," Rabbi Schmukler says. The messianic era -- to cite Maimonides -- will witness a time when "the good will be abundant, delicacies will be as plentiful as the dust, the world will be filled with knowledge of G-d as the waters cover the sea."

"Moshiach is a very important part of that," Rabbi Schmukler says.

More important, he says, than the fanciful speculations of the moment.

"I don't think people's personal opinions are the most important issue here. The most important issue is what is Moshiach and how do we prepare that that. We desperately need Moshiach, so let's go out and do it."

Whom somebody thinks the Messiah might be may be of interest, but it is not the central issue.

"That is a personal thing. When you ask someone, anybody, ask any Jew on the street, who do you think, I don't know if that's really creating anything positive. The who, what, when is not the most important part. It only distorts the entire true message and responsibility that we're supposed to have, and in a sense hurts it. The rebbe came up with a message and he didn't speak about who, what, when. He spoke about what each and every one of us can do to bring Moshiach.

"The message of the rebbe is that Moshiach is imminent. The role of Chabad is to find out what that's about and what can be done to hasten it, especially now when we desperately need Moshiach. So why cloud it? Why cloud the rebbe's message?

"The fact is that Moshiach is going to come whether we like it or not."

Rabbi Benny Zippel

Chabad of Utah

Rabbi Zippel, who represents Chabad in Salt Lake City, suggests that for non-Lubavitchers to understand the messianist debate they need to consider the depth and intensity of the relationship between leader and followers.

For more than 40 years, he says, the rebbe advocated that Jews follow a series of 10 mivtzaim, or projects, such as putting on tefillin, women lighting Shabbos candles, and so on. He told his slichim to advance these projects "in the best way possible," and to use his own name.

"The main thing is that the message should be received in the clear fashion without, G-d forbid, antagonizing, alienating, distancing or disenchanting any single Jew from his or her Judaism," Rabbi Zippel says.

The rebbe treated individuals with the same respect and warmth. For years he had a tradition of giving away dollar bills to hundreds of people on Sundays, as a tangible example of tzedakah.

"The rebbe treated the individual as if he or she were the most important person in the entire universe during that second," Rabbi Zippel recalls.

Toward the end of his life, the rebbe's teachings about Messiah "was kind of the cherry on top of the cake," Rabbi Zippel says. "It was the one thing that brought cohesiveness to all the 10 mivtzaim together. The vision changed. The idea was that it became incumbent on each and every one of us, the slichim, to make each and every person that put forth a good deed aware that their deed was going to hasten the final redemption of Moshiach."

Unfortunately, this relatively simple concept was misunderstood, not only by the media, but by many Jews and, much more important, by a substantial number of Chabadniks.

"They interpreted it as if, G-d forbid, the rebbe made it a mission for people to go around and almost force down people's throats that they have to believe that the rebbe is the Moshiach. That is so wrong, so shallow, so confusing, so meaningless, compared to what the real Moshiach undertaking should have been.

"Thank G-d it's a minority, but with the media it's hard to see that. With the media, very often when a dog bites man that's not news, but when man bites dog, that makes the news. It's sensational and makes a lot of noise and that's what the media takes up on. I think what has caused this little fringe of people to gain so much popularity is that the media has latched onto their unusual message."

Rabbi Zippel has no doubts as to the rebbe's own view on Moshiach: Ultimately, such things are unknowable until they happen. In response to a visitor who told him that he believed the rebbe was the Messiah, the rebbe related a story that even Moses did not know his true role until a few minutes prior to the incident of the burning bush.

"It is an analogy that is so irrational and so outrageous to go around saying we know who is the Moshiach, when obviously whenever the Alm-ghty is going to decide that the time has come for the Messiah to reveal himself, that's the time when the Messiah himself will be aware of it."

Rabbi Zippel says that observers should not be too harsh on those who feel strongly in messianist beliefs.

"The message the rebbe gave to the slichim was not an easy one -- to prepare an entire world to be ready for the revelation of the Moshiach. It's an incredibly powerful and enormous and elaborate undertaking"

But, because of the rebbe's paternal role and the strength of his leadership, it was also like giving a child a complex and significant assignment. The child may make mistakes in the process.

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