A cousin of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach's is a Lubavitcher who was
involved in trying to get me out of the Hickman Hebrew Christian cult. One day, he and his chevrusa partner came to my family's house on LI and he pulled me aside and gave me a very stern lecture:
"Jesus Christ couldn't be the messiah because he [didn't get the job done -ie, bring peace,etc] in his lifetime. One chance is all you get", he said.
Now that their Rebbe is gone some of them believe he'll be resurrected from the dead and proclaimed Moshiach.Some people go so far as to say he never died.
So the question is, did I let that Lubavitcher off the hook years later? No, of course not. You should know that about me by now.
I found his address and telephone # in the Tzach directory. He's now in South Africa.
One ringee-dingee, two ringee-dingees, etc.. I got him on the phone a few years ago and asked him, "where do you hold by the second coming of your Rebbe?" He balked, who wouldn't.
I explained to him why I was asking the question. He replied:
1. It's not a majority opinion. (Some factions dispute this, they say "go to 770 to the main Temple now called Beit Moshiach)
2. The Talmud says the "mosiach has to come from the living".
3. The head Rabbi in South Africa says that the messianists should all knock it off because they're making Lubavitch look like Christians.
4. But then he said, "But the quote certain sources."
So, even he's losing his perspective.