From his teachings, it is clear that the Rebbe saw every Jew as the Everyman, or even the "only man". In response to your conjecture, the Rebbe, I am sure, was interested in his own personal redemption, but the Rebbe was obsessed with every Jew's personal redemption. The universal redemption, as I noted already, depends on just that.

I would also take exception to the notion that the Rebbe, or any Jew, can represent the machine, for even if he is in a "power" position, this is not the same power that we're talking about which causes the isolation of the Everyman; the false, arrogant power of concealment, tzimtzum gone mad, and G-d's loving creation turned into a cold, senseless machine.

Lastly, I'll address your point about the Everyman/Powerman. In the model narrative we are dealing with (remember, I attributed its narrative origins to Kafka's The Trial) there is no Powerman. As I said, the powers-that-be are categorically un-human. The power is not real life or energy. It's power is that of the sheer unyielding inertia of dead weight. What the Everyman must seek to do - and indeed, this is the key to his redemption - is reassemble the fragments of his identity and become a Wholeman. Usually, there is a deep, dark part of him that is connected to the darkness. He becomes "whole" not by cutting it off like the man pinned under a fallen tree in the forest who saws off his leg in order to live. Rather, he must re-claim that part of himself which is being used by the machine. He can then finally be whole and can extricate himself from the darkness without further ripping himself in the process. But, again, the redemptive ending for the Everyman who becomes whole is only in Hollywood and, lehavdil, chasidus.
Tony Montana | 09.19.06 - 9:23 pm | #

I must now interject with my personal experience. I Russia I lived out a classical last man on earth if you wish. But I was convinced that if I only become one with the tribe I could heal my alienation at once. To suggest that the Rebbe’s system is not a machine is contrary to my experience. In fact I had heated conversation with my peers in Chabad who suggested that it is precisely my stubbornness to join the mechanical system is the root case. This seems absurd to me. If I wanted to be part of the machine I would have stayed in Russia. If you already have become un-human why go all the way across the ocean to do it. All inhumanity is untied universally. To this day it is the inhuman aspects of the system that I am requested to accept as an initiation.
Tzemach Atlas | Homepage | 09.19.06 - 9:36 pm | #

To remain human the RAMASH should have give up the mantle to RASHAG. This was the downfall of his humanity. Look around you. Go to a Shul near you and listen.
Tzemach Atlas | Homepage | 09.19.06 - 9:51 pm | #

true human experience includes being a "machine" at times. To exclude "machine" dimension פאסט אפשר פאר ווייבער.
yisroeili | 09.19.06 - 10:05 pm | #

yisroeili, we are talking about different machinkes.
Tzemach Atlas | Homepage | 09.19.06 - 10:08 pm | #

I won't respond to the RASHAG comment because I'm not sure I even get it. But let me just make a statement which I think is to the point. We must finally set the record straight! "Bitul" does not mean supplication to the machine. It cannot. The machine is death, arrogance and detachment. Those who surrender it are charged with the super-human/un-human power of the living dead. They lose their humanity. They cannot connect to others. Bitul means rejoining the whole, becoming complete again and putting an end to the fragmentation and isolation.

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
Tony Montana | 09.19.06 - 10:15 pm | #

Have you verified your concept of Bitul with the management?
http://www.mentalblog.com/2006/0...em-this- is.html
Where do you stand? One day you laud the Machine of the apparatchiks, next day you go new age "one with the universe". Make up your mind, Tony.
Tzemach Atlas | Homepage | 09.19.06 - 10:22 pm | #

Lubavitch=Tzimtzum KePshuto
The Volozhener was right after all.
Tzemach Atlas | Homepage | 09.19.06 - 10:25 pm | #

I don't see any contradiction whatsoever. The system (in its pristine, uncorrupted form) is about belonging, finding your place and learning how to shine there. It's about being connected and accountable to others. It's about order.

Whenever I have detracted anti-system-niks on this blog it is precisely because they embrace the opposite of these ideals, namely separatism and chaos.

As I have already said tonight, becoming whole and redeemed means casting off isolation. If you don't like Yudel Krinsky or Avreml Shemtov, fine with me. No one is asking you to be botul to them. Bitul is an internal equilibrium by which one finds their place within the whole.

I stand by every word I have said and I do not have to be a one-dimensional caricature. I am a human, not a machine.
Tony Montana | 09.19.06 - 10:38 pm | #

Whenever I have detracted anti-system-niks on this blog it is precisely because they embrace the opposite of these ideals, namely separatism and chaos.

so much for the eternal loneliness, you are trapped, Tony. Go back 30 years become yourself again!
Tzemach Atlas | Homepage | 09.19.06 - 10:53 pm | #

True bitul is malchus, which is I suppose why men have so much trouble with it. It means being receptive.

I am talking about interconnectedness and you get right back to your same old rant about corporate Chabad.

Please don't let this blog regress back into politics. I can't take it.
Tony Montana | 09.19.06 - 11:21 pm | #

I don't talk politics. I mourn the tribal camaraderie which I miss and yearn for. I don’t have a place to daven for Rosh Hashona because the machine has taken over completely. They look like people but under the skin there is the terminator metallic gear.
Tzemach Atlas | Homepage | 09.20.06 - 8:32 am | #

You'll excuse me for jumping in at this late point with a comment that might seem more appropriate for the begining of this discussion: I recall but have not yet been able to locate it to confirm it, that Reb Nachman presented a parable for the "last sane man." (Antedating Kafka who some, e.g., Wiesel, are eager to compare to Reb Nachman.) The parable recounts a king and his viceroy who learn that the harvest of that year was tainted with a mold (LSD?) that will induce madness in any who ingest it. They decide to horde untainted food so that at least they will be able to maintain their sanity and continue to lead their nation. What results is the obvious unintended consequence. The king and viceroy are perceived by the populace as having gone mad and efforts are afoot to remove them. The king and his viceroy decide that they have no alternative but to eat the tainted food and become mad like the rest. However, they agree to mark their foreheads to serve as a reminder to each that they are in fact and indeed mad. Perhaps this points to a solution to the isolation from others and the alienation from oneself that a "last sane man" must endure. At the heart of the dilemna a sense of bitul, that can not be extinguished by the sea of the madness that rages around them, permits some measure of objective perspective, proportion and hence connectedness until the world regains its sanity.
Baruch | 09.20.06 - 7:00 pm | #