Non-Jews in the Redemptive Project of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liady, the Founder of Habad.

• In Event: Reflections on Hasidic Thought

Abstract

The Habad movement under the leadership of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson put an unprecedented emphasis on outreach. One of the most controversial branches of Habad’s outreach was its campaign directed to the non-Jews, rooted in the belief that also the non-Jews may contribute to the advent of the Messiah by way of performing the Seven Noahide Laws. Even though this campaign is a novelty introduced by the last Lubavitcher Rebbe, Habad is commonly perceived as the branch of Hasidism, if not Orthodoxy in general, that from its inception has been the most open for the non-Jews and displayed the deepest theological awareness of the Gentiles and their role in the world.
In my presentation I aim to examine the sources of this belief in the teachings of the first Habad Rebbe, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liady. I will attempt to establish whether the image of R. Shneur Zalman’s Habad as a movement open for theological communication with non-Jews is based on sources, or it is a anachronistic projection of the contemporary Habad values on its early stages.
The concept of the Seven Noahide Laws is virtually absent from R. Shneur Zalman’s writings, yet the nations indeed feature in Rashaz’s teachings that describe the redemptive process, the messianic days and the resurrection of the dead. In my presentation I will investigate the function in the messianic process of the Gentile nations among which the Jews have been dispersed. I will attempt to establish whether they are the active agent of redemption as monotheists, or perhaps merely a passive object of the divine history, nations of idolaters that will be purified by the Jews as part of the impure world of kelipot and sitra ahra. I will discuss the impact of the transformation of world in the messianic days and after the resurrection on the status of the Gentile nations, and on the boundary between the Jews and Gentiles in the future-to-come.

author

• Wojciech Tworek, University College London