In his first lecture on R. Yaakov Moshe Harlap Feb. 28, 2017, Marc B. Shapiro says: “A few years ago, I wrote on the Sephorim blog that the messianic doctrine of Chabad is now acceptable doctrine in Orthodoxy. I’m speaking sociologically, not religiously. Everyone attacked me.
“Just go to India and you will see that it is an accepted doctrine. Just go to the Chabad house in Delhi. Everyone eats there. Go to Florence. The Chabad house in Florence, the frum (Orthodox) eat there. They don’t want to eat at the regular kosher restaurant because Chabad is stricter. In the big window of the Chabad house in Florence, there’s a big picture of the rebbe [proclaiming him the Messiah]. In the big restaurant in Venice, everyone eats there, is messianic shul and the restaurant is run by a messianic rabbi. The Litvishe daven in these places, the Hasidim daven there.”
“I don’t understand how adults can believe this stuff, how actual live adult Jews can believe this nonsense but they do, but we’re all sitting there and enjoying the hospitality and we’re all singing and the two Chabad rabbis and the children sing this nonsense [that the Rebbe is moshiach].”
“Dovid Lichtenstein used to live in Lakewood. He now lives in Monsey. He’s a billionaire. He did well in finance. Last Saturday night, David Berger was on the show and they got testy. I disagree with David Berger. I even debated him once publicly. Dovid Lichtenstein did not have a clue what David Berger was saying… Berger repeated himself five times and Lichtenstein couldn’t grasp what David Berger was saying and Lichtenstein started giving Berger mussar that he was like the Nazis…and it became a shouting match.”
