First We Take Manhattan, Then We Take Berlin

Principally this was nothing new for the American poet, who repeatedly during his career addressed questions concerning the end time.  For years, he had prophesied the approaching apocalypse.  With the fall of the iron curtain, this passion {of his} culminated in two of his best albums, “I’m Your Man” (1988) and “The Future” (1992).  During this time he also wrote “First we Take Manhattan.”  He announced then, in spite of the enthusiastic proclamations of the end of the cold war, he foresaw a murderous intensification of global political events.  Thus, with “Democracy is coming to the USA,” he announced the presently occurring de-liberalization of the United States.

All this astonishing insight lies embedded in deeply mosaic-religious intuition and subordinates itself to a sharply defined messianic (oriented) consciousness, in which “the holy (prophetic) books (at the end of the days) are opened wide.”  However, it is not the customary Jewish approach which shapes Leonard Cohen’s biblical-astrological world view.  It is not so much the Torah that inspires the poet, as it is the numbers-magical secret doctrine of the Cabala, which is as mysterious as it is exclusive.

Cohen confirms this.  On his web-page can be found a dissertation by Elliot Wolfson, Professor of Jewish Mysticism at NYU, given during a lecture at the McGill School: “The Shining New Jerusalem:  The Songs of Leonard Cohen as a Cabbalistic key.”  He (Wolfson) introduces his protagonist by means of a direct question:  Has he studied Cabbalism or the teachings of the keepers of his tradition–Chassidism?  Cohen, appearing modest, gives a clear answer:  “I have been deeply impressed by what I have read and by my dialogs with presently living Chassidic masters. 

SECTARIANS BETWEEN THE DAY BEFORE YESTERDAY AND DAY AFTER TOMORROW

The word “of God” is to be understood as a mandate to action.  And, naturally, Chassidism, activist and polarizing as it essentially is, has no doubt that the secret-enshrouded role of “God’s executioner” has fallen to be its lot.  To accomplish this mandate, the prophetic visions (of Judaism) given millennia ago, serve as a blue-print for action.

Hence, these latest times, Chassidic scholars labor to understand the prophecies of the Bible.  They search for the obvious, the obscure, and the allegorical, to analyze and to decode the prophecies with the aid of the Cabbala, Astrology, and ancient number and letter symbols, in order to align them to the present time-line.  Their findings are passed on to political activists, whose responsibility it becomes to set the stage in the political landscape by creating events leading to the accomplished (prophesied) facts. This practice, like that of the Biblical sons of Issachar, who knew the secret teachings concerning the symbolism of letters serves to predict the (signs of the) times in store and to discern the actions necessary for Israel to take. (Footnote 3, p. 19)

It must be noted that this group (the Chassidics) are not to be identified as the Jewish people.  Neither is Chassidism to be identified with the Jewish religion. It is a sect which is enslaved to the crude secret teachings of Cabbalism which tramples underfoot the very essence of Judaism.  To make a clear distinction between this sect and Judaism itself, is of crucial importance.  Historically, the activities of the Chassidics, as a rule, have only harmed Judaism as a people.  Patriotic devotion to their own nation is an alien concept to them.  They have subordinated the fate of the Jewish people as a whole to the significance of prophecy. 

Thus, one of their most important proponents, the son of the first Israelitish chief rabbi Zvi Jehudah Kook, applauded the holocaust as “divine surgery.”  As a “profound, mysterious cleansing process, which aimed to liberate us from the impurities of the exile,” as were both world wars, so also (was) “the holocaust a concussion, an annihilation of a rotted culture (that of the exile) in the service of the national rebirth and thus the fulfillment of revealed end-time visions.” (Footnote 4, p 19)

The same tune was played by a man (at least) equal to Kook’s stature, revered by the Chabad-sectarians as the living Messiah, “Rebbe” Schneerson.  Asked how the holocaust could have happened if the God of Israel reigned indeed, he answered, that there had been a rotten branch in Judaism, which had to be sawn off. (Footnote 5, p.19)

Alarmingly, Kook’s and Schneerson’s absurd ideology is by no means held by them only, and the reasons are: 
because Chassidism succeeded early on to ensnare mainstream Judaism  with a finely meshed net
because the Chassidics political culture commands over a secret-service-like infrastructure
because the Chassidics conceal(ed) behind the fig leaf of devoutness, a modus operand whose strategies can only be compared to that of the infamous P2 Lodge.

A high degree of activity radiates from the cult’s (this-worldly) hub, the Chabad (Lubawitsch) movement, a proselytizing sect of a special strain.  Their goal is to convert all Jews–whether reformed, conservative or orthodox–into something called hyper-Judaism.  Accordingly, a strong missionary effort is underway, but in a peculiarly special sense.  Unlike traditional sects, who seek to bring their converts into their own folds, the Lubawitsch sect leaves the “missioned” in their current clothing in their current environment, with instructions to continue working from within.  This practice diminishes their visibility on all fronts and increases the efficiency of dissemination

The Jewish Virtual Library writes:

“The infrastructure of the Lubawitsch movement since the death of the “Rebbe” (1994) increased by another 30 percent and has established itself as a Jewish global player.”  Over 3,700 associate emissaries labor world-wide in about 100 countries.  Since 1995 more than 400 schlichim (emissaries) were dispatched and over 500 new Chabad institutions were added, which brings the total number of facilities to nearly 2,600 (seminaries, day-camps, schools, etc.).  (Footnote 6, p.20)

With that, the sect is the largest Jewish institution world-wide.

The “Jerusalem Post” sees the Chabad sect as

“…a strong power,” ” a movement of monumental significance.”  “Chabad is,” continues Israel’s most important daily news paper, “an organization which commands immense financial resources world-wide (the budget for Russia alone is $20 million per year).  Their rabbis instruct Jewish congregations in a surprisingly large number of countries.  (Footnote 7, p.20)