Chabad Messianists Lose Court Ruling

You may be familiar with Chabad, an ultra-orthodox Jewish movement that has become very visible in recent years in their opening of "Chabad Houses" across the world. They are also one of the modern populizers of Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism (Madonna has jumped into the craze, as you can read about here).

(A little sidebar: Perhaps we should replace the ineffective U.N. with Kabbalist Madonna, Buddhist Richard Gere and Scientologist Tom Cruise. They certainly couldn't do any worse in solving the world's problems.)

Anyway, Chabad is more formally known as Lubavitcher Hasidism, a sect that goes back to 18th century Russia. During the tenure of their latest leader, the "Rebbe" Menachem Mendel Schneerson, many followers claimed he was the Messiah. This belief got only stranger after his death in 1994 (he hasn't been replaced yet as Rebbe). You can read more about the background of this movement here.

The latest development in this bizarre drama is a court case that has evicted a Messianist congregation from the movement's main synagogue in Brooklyn.  While this drama has not been widely known outside of New York - where one could find posters on the subway with photos like the one above and captions reading "Messiah Now" - I'm pleased to see this development.

Fundamentalism and extremism of all colors are an embarrassment to logic and reason.