Today in, "What the Fucking Fuck?"

I am not particularly up on the various machinations and conflicts that sometimes occupy the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, particularly those involving Hasidim.

That being said, I have been aware of a schism in Chabad Lubovich between the majority of that religious organization, who see the last Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson as a tsadik, basically a saint (It's a Jewish thing, so it is more complicated than that), and a small splinter group who think that the last  Lubavitcher Rebbe (There is a group running the denomination now) is the Messiah, in the Jewish sense of the word.

I should note here that the Rebbe always opposed talk that he might be the messiah.

Well, a small number of the Messianic splinter group tunneled into 770, aka 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Height, aka Chabad Headquarters and a synagogue, in an attempt to ……… I've no clue what they attempting.

I'm not sure if they knew what the hell they were attempting, but they were attempting something, and when the tunnel was discovered, and contractors were brought in to fill it in, an altercation insued:

A decades-old fight about the direction of one of New York’s most prominent Hasidic Jewish groups tipped into chaos this week, when one faction clashed with the police over a tunnel that had secretly been built to the movement’s main synagogue.

The tunnel, a passageway between the headquarters of the group, the Chabad-Lubavitcher movement, and at least one adjacent property, was first discovered late last year, according to local news reports. But on Monday afternoon, after a cement truck was brought in to fill it, some Hasidic men attempted to block that effort.

The police were called, and officers said they found a group of men breaking through a wall of the prayer space that led to the tunnel. After a resulting confrontation, which included skirmishes with officers, nine people were arrested, according to the Brooklyn district attorney’s office.

………

The conflict took place at 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, the movement’s global headquarters, which is often referred to simply as 770 and is one of the most significant religious sites in the city.

It is not yet known exactly who built the tunnel, how they did so, or what they hoped to accomplish. But two men who said they spoke with some of those who broke through the synagogue wall said the motive was to hasten an expansion of 770 — a move that they say the Lubavitcher movement’s leader, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known as the rebbe, called for more than three decades ago.

………

Mainstream Lubavitcher leadership is committed to carrying out the rebbe’s teachings and vision. But a smaller faction within the movement claims that the rebbe is in fact the Messiah, and some in that group believe he never actually died. Legal disputes about the role of 770 — including whether a plaque on an adjacent building could refer to the rebbe as deceased — have dragged on for years.

Conversations with Hasidic community members and reports in the local Hasidic press indicated that a group of messianic students were probably responsible for building the tunnel, which they believe is a way to respect the Lubavitcher rebbe, whom they speak of in the present tense.

Trust me on this one, if you are a gentile, you will find this FAR less confusing than if you are Jewish.

Come to think of it, confusion is pretty much a perpetual state of Jews, and the attempt to be less confused has driven much of the scholarship in my religion.

It's not for nothing that Maimonides wrote The Guide for the Perplexed.