Last modified: 2024-01-13 by martin karner
Keywords: chabad-lubavitch movement | lubavitch | messiah | mashiakh | crown: royal (blue) | text: hebrew (red) |
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image by Eugene Ipavec, 31 December 2007
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Chabad is a religious Jewish Hassidic movement known also as
Chabad Lubavitch. The movement is using flags with a crown and
the Hebrew word Mashiakh (Messiah) on yellow. I took this picture of a flag at Zefat.
There is a logo in this
website.
Dov Gutterman, 30 September 2001
From their website:
Chabad-Lubavitch is a philosophy, a movement, and an organization. (...) The word "Chabad" is a Hebrew acronym for the three intellectual faculties of: chachmah-wisdom, binah-comprehension and da'at-knowledge. (...) The word "Lubavitch" is the name of the town in White Russia where the movement was based for more than a century. Appropriately, the word Lubavitch in Russian means the "city of brotherly love". (...) Following its inception 250 years ago, the Chabad-Lubavitch movement swept through Russia and spread in surrounding countries as well. (...)
Dov Gutterman, 30 September 2001
The crown on this flag comes from the common belief that the
Messiah is descends from King David and therefore is sometimes
referred to as the The King Messiah.
Dov Gutterman, 16 June 2003
In the Jewish tradition, the Messiah will be 100% human.
A word of clarification, though: That's a Habad-Lubavitch flag,
and to most of them – especially those who would wave this flag-
it specifically refers to the late (seventh and last) Lubavitcher
Rebbe, Menachem M. Schneerson (1902–1994), who is believed by
many of his followers to be the Messiah. Note the use of the
present tense – his death has not dissuaded most of his followers
from that belief. This may not strike a Christian as odd (Second
Coming and all), but it's anathema to Jewish belief and
tradition, which states the Messiah shall be born, rule, and die.
Lately, a number of Lubavitchers have taken this a step further
and begun to deify the Rebbe. But that's well out of bounds.
Nathan Lamm, 16 June 2003
When Hasidic Jewry came into existence, and began to spread,
in the 18th Century, it was strongest in areas like Poland,
Galicia, Hungary, and Romania. Areas such as Lithuania and White
Russia (Jews were not permitted beyond the Pale) were
non-Hasidic; Chabad (of whose streams, Lubavitch is the only
remaining) was the only major "Russian" Hasidic group,
unique in a number of ways among both Hasidim and Russian Jewry.
It's therefore not surprising that Lubavitch remains one of the
strongest groups in the former Soviet Union, although there are
many other factors that contribute to this as well.
It should also be pointed out that many in the Lubavitch movement
believed, and many continue to believe, that the late Rabbi
Schneerson was/is the Messiah, giving this flag added
significance.
Nathan Lamm, 8 November 2004
This group had in the past some political orientation , but
today minimized their political activities and are concentrated
in cultural-religious activities in Israel and abroad. They
operate centers around the world and they even sent supporters to
sport matches (not in Sabbath, of course) and it is not unusual
to see them in international Football and Basketball matches
supporting the home team. It is quite common to see their flags
in Maccabi Tel-Aviv Basketball Club games as the
color of their flag match the team color.
Their abroad centers became some kind of Israeli meeting points
as they are situated in almost every exotic spot (Nepal,
Thailand, India etc...) and their Passover "Seders"
become a mass gathering of Israelis (most of them not religious).
As I visited Italy during "Sukkut" holiday, I
was not surprised to find a "Sukka" built on
boat in Venice and in the center of Milan.
Dov Gutterman, 8 November 2004
image by Eugene Ipavec, 31 December 2007
I saw a flag being
advertised on eBay. Apparently, there is a sect of Hasidic
Judaism that believes that Chabadnik is the Moshiach or
"Messiah", hence, this flag (On the flag at
the top are 4 red magnets merely holding the flag up on a
refrigerator, they are not part of the design). While there are
not "rivet holes" to "fly" this flag; there
is a "sleeve" on the side for a pole to be inserted
into. Size: 3'x5'; c. 2006
William Garrison, 29 December 2006
The Hasidic sect is the Lubavitch, also called Chabad. (The
two terms were not always synonymous, but now are Members are
sometimes called "Chabadniks.") Many of them believe
their late rebbe, or leader, Menachem Mendel Schneerson (d. 1994)
to be the Messiah. The flag above doesn't indicate this – it
simply reads "Messiah" – but is frequently flown by
Chabad Hasidim at rallies and the like, and the reference is
probably always meant to be to him.
The "sleeve" seems to be common on Israeli-produced
flags, at least those sold to the general public.
Nathan Lamm, 29 December 2006
The Chabad Movement is the form of Chasidism originally
developed by the first Lubavitcher Rebbe (Rabbi) during the 18th
Century in Russia and which reached its fullest development in
the United States during the second half of the 20th Century
under the direction of the last Rebbe, Menachem Mendel
Schneerson. Based in Brooklyn in the United States, the Chabad
Movement has spread worldwide and can be found wherever even the
smallest Jewish population exists. Chabad is a Hebrew acronym of
the words for Wisdom, Understanding, and Knowledge, and has a
strong mystic element. Despite their shortcomings, the Wikipedia
articles on both Chasidism
in general and the Chabad
Movement in particular are a useful starting point for
learning about both.
During the final years of the last Rebbe's life a movement arose
which regarded him as the Messiah, an accusation to which his
reply seemed to many as equivocal as that of Jesus when the same
question had been put to him: 'Whom do you say I am?'.
After the Rebbe's death not only was no successor named, but the
idea that he had indeed been the Messiah gained considerable
strength within the Lubavitch community in particular and among
large sections of both the Chasidic and non-Chasidic (Mitnagdim)
elements of Orthodox Judaism, especially but not exclusively in
the United States. This claim was vociferously denied not only by
some elements within Chabad Chasidism itself but among adherents
of other Chasidic sects as well, and certainly within
non-Chasidic Orthodox Judaism as well as non-Orthodox forms of
Judaism such as Conservative (Masort)i, Reform, Liberal,
Reconstructionist, and Humanistic Jews, as well among almost all
secular Jews.
This Chabad Messianism has nevertheless continued to win
adherents among Jews around the world (although not among
non-Jews). Some of these Messianic Chabadniks have even gone so
far as to claim that while Jesus was the Messiah for the Gentiles
the last Lubavitcher Rebbe was the Messiah for the Jews. Chabad
Messianism has even developed its own flag.
Ron Lahav, 30 December 2007
It seems that the known Messiah flag got also an English
and Arabic variants. The English variant can be seen in a photo
at www.7for70.com with the
inscription "MOSHIACH" and the Arabic version can be
seen in an image lower in the same page.
Dov Gutterman, 18 March 2010