> An extremely beloved, interesting, and powerful leader. At 17 he'd already memorized the entire Talmud - thousands of pages of dense and obscure Aramaic - with commentary. The author of hundreds of books, innumerable letters and speeches. He founded thousands of institutions.During his life the Rebbe had fled from the Soviet Union, the Nazis, France. In New York, he made his court at a building in the neighborhood of Brooklynn - today bougie and expensive, then working-class.The address? 770 Eastern Parkway. A building so iconic in Judaism it's known simply as
770.
> Tunnels under 770
> 770 itself has faced a lot of issues. As the center of the Chabad world, every claimant wanted it, or at least a piece of the pie. This featured acrimonious legal cases and battles, both in the Jewish juridical system and secularly.
> After many years, a court gave ownership to a consortium of educators and general representatives of the worldwide movement.
> In practice, the synagogue - which every devout chabadnik has been to, prayed at, and loves - is governed or controlled by gabbaim, who are older, respected men. However, many bochurim (unmarried youth) visit and live there or nearby for a year. It's a popular program within the chosidus. Israelis especially get special religious visas just to come and study at 770.
> You can see where this is going.
> Over time, the number of worshippers, and especially meshichistim, at 770 has built up very high. One factor is the birth rates, which of themselves would mean an increasingly crowded building. More to the point, messianics revere the Rebbe's building more than antis. Also, certain gabboim at 770 encourage meshichism. It brings in donations to the site specifically, instead of the rest of Chabad's institutions. Lastly, tzfaty youngsters who overly revere the Rebbe - many descended from recent returnees to Judaism or from broken family backgrounds - have a huge presence at the site.
> Everyone agrees 770 needs expanded, but the planning and permits process to expand a building in New York City, the den of the Democrats, is not fast or easy at the best of times. Imagine with the decentralized state of the Chabad movement today. Many of the meshichistim in particular believe the Rebbe gave them an order to expand the building.
> At some point over the past couple of years, some of these bochurim decided enough was enough. They found an abandoned mikveh (Jewish ritual bath) nearby and dug a long butt, big butt tunnel from it to the shul. Furnished with beds, a study hall, etc.
> Recently the building commission, fire department or some other fake jobs program found out and got mad. Apparently it's a structural risk to the building
> They shut down the lower story and brought in cement mixers. The bochurim responded by rioting and disconnecting the cement mixers.
> The NYPD came in, evacuating the whole building til further notice and
arresting dozens of bochurim.
> Now everyone's mad. The elders are realizing the problem with letting meshichism spread so easily and widely among the young. Many think Chabad needs to recentralize or at least establish a committee capable of handling issues. The bochurim are upset their friends got arrested for a righteous cause. Everyone hates that a couple of youngsters are making Chabad and the Jewish people look bad. This is a big deal in Judaism as it leads people to desecrate and disrespect G-d, who is after all G-d of the Jews in particular (and the world in general). The cops, being antisemites. are glad they got to arrest Jews: the only winners in this debacle.