Chabad and the War with Iran?

What you should know that Tucker Carlson doesn't

The seventh and last Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson

I have thought for some time now that Tucker Carlson’s head is destined to explode, that the trend toward the worst kind of irrational Jew-hatred in his thinking and speaking seems to foreshadow a foaming-at-the mouth insanity. Are we there yet? I don’t know, but suggesting Chabad has something to do with the war with Iran certainly qualifies as a data point in his downward spiral, even if it’s not the end point.

Many of you will know nothing of Chabad. This is a brief primer and then a quick analysis of what Carlson said.

Jewish belief (from the book of Isaiah and elsewhere) is that eventually a Messiah (an anglicized version of the Hebrew word Moshiach which means the “anointed one”) will redeem the world and usher in an age of peace and harmony on earth. At various times in history, some Jews (sometimes many Jews) believed that the Messiah had arrived but ultimately, mainstream Judaism has rejected all of the previous candidates from Jesus to Shabtai Tzvi (google him). We’re still waiting.

Jewish writing about the Messianic Age is minimal and speculative compared to the millions of words that have been written about how we are supposed to behave in the here and now. But there is a mainstream belief that the Messiah will rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. Some say God will build it and lower it down from heaven. Suffice it to say that this is a very mystical and speculative set of beliefs that most Jews, even most religious Jews, do not spend a lot of time on. Most hold few or no opinions about these matters.

When Israel re-united Jerusalem in 1967 taking the Temple Mount from Jordanian control, they left control of the Temple Mount to the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf which is funded and controlled by Jordan. This control has been codified by the Israel-Jordan peace treaty of 1994. There is a fringe group that wants to hasten the rebuilding of the Temple before the Messiah arrives. The overwhelming majority of Jews believe this rebuilding is in Divine hands, not human ones. But giving control of the Temple Mount to Jordan makes this dispute moot.

Which brings us to Chabad. Chabad is a chassidic sect. In the 18th and 19th century, Chassidism was controversial among mainstream Jews. Today it is just a particular flavor of orthodox Judaism. The name Chabad is an acronym combining the Hebrew words for wisdom, (CHochma) understanding (Bina) and knowledge (Da’at). Chabad is also known as Lubavitch because the second Chabad Rebbe, the son of the founder Shneur Zalman of Liadi, moved to the town of Lubavitch in Russia. So followers of Chabad are also called Lubavitchers.

The last Chabad Rebbe (a rebbe is a rabbi who is the leader of a particular chassidic movement) was Menachem Mendel Schneerson who many people simply called “the Rebbe” even though he was the seventh Rebbe of the movement. In addition to being a prolific scholar, he was a passionate advocate for Jewish outreach to fellow Jews to encourage their connection to Judaism. Because of this passion, Chabad rabbis opened what are called Chabad Houses all over America and all over the world.

A Chabad House usually holds services like a synagogue but it is usually much more than that. It often runs a kosher restaurant, in many cases the only one in town, especially in tourist areas where there are few or no Jewish year-round residents. But a Chabad House may also operate a day care center or a school and often a summer camp. It may offer programs for homeless people or drug addicts.

A Chabad House usually has two full-time employees—a Chabad rabbi (meaning a rabbi ordained by a Chabad seminary as opposed to the Chabad Rebbe who is one person and who was effectively the Chief Rabbi of all the other ones) and the rabbi’s wife, the rebbetzin (Yiddish for “rabbi’s wife”). They typically work very hard. Even when they don’t have a restaurant, they usually are effectively running one on Shabbat, hosting dozens and sometimes hundreds of Shabbat guests for lunch and dinner.

A brief personal note. I became an orthodox Jew through the kindness of Chabad. I have spent many hours in Chabad Houses around the world at Shabbat services and meals and I have often prayed in Chabad Houses where I lived. Chabad rabbis and their wives are extraordinary people, typically smart, funny, and charming. Most have a twinkle in their eye. Their devotion to helping others is off the charts. They believe it is their mission to hasten the coming of the messiah and to serve God through that devotion and through encouraging their fellow Jews to return to their tradition and practices. They devote themselves to this mission with love and without judgment.

The last Lubavitcher Rebbe believed that the coming of the Messiah was imminent. He believed that if more Jews kept the commandments, the Messiah could arrive in our lifetime. That is why the Rebbe encouraged his emissaries to encourage Jewish women to light Shabbat candles, and Jewish men to put on tefillin and to love your neighbor as yourself. It’s a lovely idea: you can hasten the redemption of the world. You can bring heaven down to earth. It is not easy to believe such a thing, but the Rebbe and his followers and many Jews outside of Chabad believed and believe it fervently.

I have never heard a Chabad rabbi or any follower of Chabad suggest that the Temple should be rebuilt before the Messiah comes or that Jews today should take control of the Temple Mount or that Israel should take control of the Temple Mount away from the Waqf. Chabad is apolitical.

When the Rebbe died, he had no heir, no son or daughter whose husband could be the next Rebbe. Somehow, Chabad kept going. But something else arose—a belief that the Rebbe was the Messiah and that he will come back to life and do what the Messiah is supposed to do. Suffice it to say, this is an incredibly fringe belief. It seems, how to put it, just a tad Christian.

Most Jews and most Lubavitchers think the idea that the Rebbe was/is the Messiah is absurd. It is the official position of Chabad that the Rebbe was a human being who died and who will not come back from the dead as the Messiah. But some (no one knows how many) Lubavitchers feel otherwise. And an even smaller number advertise that belief with a yellow flag with a blue crown on it or a yellow patch with a blue crown often with the Hebrew word “moshiach” meaning “messiah.” Some tiny number of soldiers in the IDF wear that patch. Most Israeli Lubavitchers—like most ultra-orthodox Jews in Israel—do not serve in the IDF.

Given all this, it’s hard to make sense of what Tucker Carlson said: “How did all these guys end up wearing patches suggesting the point of this war was the destruction of one of the holiest places in Islam and the rebuilding of a Temple that is totally an anathema to Christianity?” His answer is that “this has been going on a long time in part through the efforts of Chabad.” After explaining what Chabad is and who the Rebbe was, he says, “Chabad has been pushing in a pretty subtle way, unless you look carefully, for the reconstruction of the third temple.” And “those [yellow] patches came from Chabad.” Carlson also spoke of the destruction of the Dome of the Rock and Al-Asa mosque which are on the Temple Mount where the first two Temples stood.

This is incoherent. It makes no sense. He speaks of “all these guys.” I’ve never seen the patch he describes and I have seen hundreds of soldiers on buses and trains here in Israel. That a handful of IDF soldiers think the Rebbe was/is the Messiah tells you nothing about the “point of this war.” There is nothing about this war that suggest the “destruction of one of the holiest places in Islam.” It’s a dog’s breakfast of non-sequiturs. These claims are beyond silly. Chabad has absolutely nothing to do with this war and I would normally not spend a single minute discussing these claims. Except.

Except that the claim that Jews want to destroy the Al-Aqsa mosque and rebuild the Temple is the pretext that Arabs used in 1929 during the British Mandate to slaughter Jews in what is known as the Hebron massacre when 67 Jews were killed. It was the same pretext used by Arafat in 2000 to launch what was called the Al-Aqsa Intifada that led to the deaths of hundreds of Israelis. It is the same pretext used by Hamas on October 7th which they and their supporters around the world called the Al-Aqsa Flood resulting in the death of 1200 Israelis and the torment of the 250 people who were kidnapped.

There are over 6000 Chabad rabbis in over 100 countries around the world. They and their wives dress distinctively. They proudly walk the streets of the world as Jews. They have been gunned down in my lifetime in Mumbai and the UAE, and stabbed in Boston. The Hanukkah event in Bondi Beach in Melbourne was a Chabad celebration. Tucker Carlson has just put a target on the backs of 6000 rabbis and their families and the people they serve. Israeli security forces issued an alert yesterday that Jews around the world should be careful visiting Chabad Houses this Shabbat. I suspect they are hearing some alarming things.

Tucker Carlson is a deranged Jew-hater. But he is more than that. He is a wicked man who is spreading a theory that is not just ludicrous nonsense. It comes with murderous intent. As David Deutsch has pointed out, there is a Pattern throughout history—the willingness of people to say things that legitimize the harming of Jews. Tucker Carlson is the latest manifestation of the Pattern. He is not just spreading disinformation. He is spreading disinformation that puts Jewish lives at risk. We are now well beyond the “he is not good for the MAGA movement” or “the Republicans should disavow him.” All civilized people should disavow him. He is a wicked man.

She-who-I-will-not-name immediately chimed in, agreeing with Carlson and encouraged her followers to find out where their local Chabad House because there are “dangerous people” there. She is another evil moron, but I encourage you to follow her advice, albeit for a reason different from the one she suggest. Seek out your local Chabad House. Give them some love and some money. Chabad Houses get no funding from Chabad headquarters in Brooklyn. Each local rabbi has to raise money from either membership fees or donations. Many have no membership fees. They welcome everyone regardless of their ability to pay. So help them out and make a donation today. Spread a little light.