STATEMENT FROM CHABAD-LUBAVITCH OF OREGON:
We of Chabad-Lubavitch of Oregon were shocked to read about the beliefs of Ariel Sokolovsky in the Haaretz Newspaper. His beliefs are heretical and anathema to Torah.
Ariel Sokolovsky has no position in the Chabad Lubavitch movement. He is not a rabbi certified by our movement. He cannot possibly be described as a Chabad activist. He acts in numerous ways in complete contradiction of the Shulchan Aruch – The Code of Jewish Law.
His blasphemous blog is his own private initiative, just as the concubine blog that advocates ideas inimical to Torah and Jewish Tradition. His blog is not part of the Chabad web system. The statement by Haaretz that it is a Chabad website is false.
We strongly protest any assertion that he has any connection to the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.
Rabbi Moshe Wilhelm Regional Director Chabad-Lubavitch of Oregon
Here’s the Feb. 12, 2007 Haaretz article that got Ariel in trouble:
Rabbi Ariel Sokolovsky is a Moldova-born Chabad rabbi in Portland, Oregon, and a more amiable soul would be hard to find.Yet Sokolovsky maintains a blog he entitled "Rebbegod" and refers to Schneerson as "Rebbe-Almighty" among other adulatory sobriquets. Drawing on rabbinical sources, he attempts to show that this is not as revolutionary as it sounds. He concedes that there are few people like him who will openly call the Rebbe God. He claims, however, that many people believe it, but do not say so openly for fear of scaring people away from Chabad altogether. "The Rebbe and God are not the same thing exactly, but I do not object to people thinking that they are the same thing." He recounts an incident in which he confronted his teacher – a senior Chabad rabbi from the former USSR – as to why he would not openly declare the Rebbe to be God. According to Sokolowsky, the senior rabbi jokingly warned him: "there can be many gods but only one Moshiach."
Ariel told me Feb. 12 that every reporter since me has misquoted him. I profiled Ariel in November, 2002.
