Is it Only a Matter of Time?

[onionsoupmix]

The parallels between the rise of Early Christianity and what is going on in some factions of Chabad is well known and has been extensively written and argued about by people with more knowledge that I have.

What is less known because it is maybe just beginning is the weirdish cult-like following starting behind Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin. It's one

Comments

average Joe Shmoe in Crown Heights

[anonymous]

I will permit myself to speak for the average Joe Shmoe in Crown Heights:
We feel bad for the guy and think he or anyone of any faith or creed should not get such draconian sentences for non-violent crimes. That this goes on today in these great United States is crying shame. Past that, it is painful to see his ramblings from prison. On the other hand, who wouldn't lose their mind under the circumstances?
-cfkaMP

Re: average Joe Shmoe in Crown Heights

[onionsoupmix]

So you think his divrei torah are pathetic? I am surprised. Thank you for your post, Joe.

Re: average Joe Shmoe in Crown Heights

[anonymous]

Come one, have some heart. Here we are watching a guy bleed to death, both physically and mentally. How can one concentrate on the pathetic quality of his 'divrei torah' (and they obviously are pathetic) at a time like that? It's just raw unbearable pain on display.

Btw, since we are on the Rubashkin topic, there is something that people don't understand about the frum support for Rubashkin and the screams about 'ani-Semitism'. The thing is, frum people like to think of America in rosy colors (and who can blame us after all we have been through everywhere else?) and it's somehow more acceptable to us to imagine that this is an isolated case of an anti-Semitic judge on a rampage than to admit that the federal justice system is in this beloved country of ours is completely broken. While it's true that Linda Read is a heartless nazi (not toward jews, but toward all defendants), but it is even scarier to realize she is not an anomaly and that draconian prison terms are handed out to the non-violent convicted all over the country...-

Re: average Joe Shmoe in Crown Heights

[onionsoupmix]

I think going to law school gave me an appreciation for this.

I remember walking around in a daze after I learned about the felony murder rule, the one in which a guy running from the cops can be convicted of murder if one cop accidentally runs over another cop.

rubashkin and the rebbe

[anonymous]

glowing_flower here.

I have to say that as I have read more about the Rubashkin case, it does seem that there is some basic unfairness with the judge having been involved in the prosecution. There do seem to be a fair number of legal people lining up behind him also, as well as Congresspeople, although I notice that they all seem to be from states with either large Jewish populations or large dependence on illegal immigrants. So in regards to to the elected officials, I doubt their motives are a real interest in justice.

That being said, It does seem as if SMR has been overcharged. But, I think he's hosed. A whole subset of the charges were dismissed without prejudice, so if the financial fraud case gets overturned in some way, they'll just go after him on that, I imagine.

That being said, I think Chabad has been heading toward being its own religion for a long time and will continue that drift with or without SMR.

Re: rubashkin and the rebbe

[onionsoupmix]

Most people do not understand what dismissed without prejudice means... I keep hearing that those charges were dismissed because they realized how silly and unfounded those allegations were.

But before I went to law school, I also did not understant these details, so what can you expect.