Open Secret: Postmessianic Messianism and the Mystical Revision of Menahem Mendel Schneerson

by Elliot R. Wolfson

Menahem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994) was the seventh and seemingly last Rebbe of the Habad-Lubavitch dynasty. Marked by conflicting tendencies, Schneerson was a radical messianic visionary who promoted a conservative political agenda, a reclusive contemplative who built a hasidic sect into an international movement, and a man dedicated to the exposition of mysteries who nevertheless harbored many secrets. Schneerson astutely masked views that might be deemed heterodox by the canons of orthodoxy while engineering a fundamentalist ideology that could subvert traditional gender hierarchy, the halakhic distinction between permissible and forbidden, and the social-anthropological division between Jew and Gentile. While most literature on the Rebbe focuses on whether or not he identified with the role of Messiah, Elliot R. Wolfson, a leading scholar of Jewish mysticism and the phenomenology of religious experience, concentrates instead on Schneerson's apocalyptic sensibility and his promotion of a mystical consciousness that undermines all discrimination. For Schneerson, the ploy of secrecy is crucial to the dissemination of the messianic secret. To be enlightened messianically is to be delivered from all conceptual limitations, even the very notion of becoming emancipated from limitation. The ultimate liberation, or true and complete redemption, fuses the believer into an infinite essence beyond all duality, even the duality of being emancipated and not emancipated—an emancipation, in other words, that emancipates one from the bind of emancipation. At its deepest level, Schneerson's eschatological orientation discerned that a spiritual master, if he be true, must dispose of the mask of mastery. Situating Habad's thought within the evolution of kabbalistic mysticism, the history of Western philosophy, and Mahayana Buddhism, Wolfson articulates Schneerson's rich theology and profound philosophy, concentrating on the nature of apophatic embodiment, semiotic materiality, hypernomian transvaluation, nondifferentiated alterity, and atemporal temporality.

Genres: Judaism, History, Judaica

472 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Seekers of Unity · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book. Rich source of references in chabad chasidic literature on the topic at play. I found his knowledge of chabad thought to be quite broad and deep. I found his comparisons to Eastern thought to be most fruitful. I’m still grappling with his larger thesis of hypernomianism and reading a second book of his Venturing Beyond, where he ventures to make the same case in the larger context on Jewish mysticism. I gotta say, it’s growing on me. In regards to his writing style, it’s a real pain in the rear and I don’t think it’s pretention for the sake of pretention, even tho it’s 1000% pretentious, it’s his attempt to fit into the postmodern ilk by being performative and poetic and self-negative and negation of negation and dialectical etc. I get it, I still don’t like it and wish he would stop. It upsets me to see a whole lot of intelligent adults needing to write in this insider language, like a joke that’s kept between friends to foster a fragile solidarity, or in this case to protect a façade of fragile intelligence. But Wolfson is no fragile intellectual, so talk straight brother. If only Wolfson wasn’t so conscious about trying to be (un)readable I may have given the work five stars. (There is a case to be made that the subject at hand (mysticism) because of its complex, ineffable, apophatic nature etc. demands such use of language. This is a plausible case).

If you like books like this you'll love my project:
http://youtube.com/c/seekersofunity?s...

[Yoshi · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has a really interesting topic, but did not do well to make the topic accessible. The author uses a ton of academic jargon and complex language, which I do not mind when used to good effect and communication. However, I felt mostly lost despite my familiarity with the topic and other literature on the subject of Chabad messianism and Jewish mysticism in general. Kudos to writing on such an interesting topic for research, but poor execution. In addition it is quite a long book. I wasn't able to finish the read.

[Jon-Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jewish books are prone to using too much jargon. It goes from a nice spice to totally yeshivish. This book actually struggles for clarity because of the use of too much academic jargon, yet the thesis of the book and its research are very sound and the point is interesting.

[Marsha Altman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to rate this book higher but I really could not understand it. It's very dense and extremely academic but requires a good knowledge of Lubavitch and general Jewish terms.