Chanukah is one of the great ימים טובים (holidays) of the Jewish people. It is identified, connected, infused, suffused with holiness, the fight to maintain our sanctity in a hostile, impure world. Who does not know about the פך השמן הטהור, the flask of pure oil, that played such a vital role in it.
מתתיהו כהן גדול and the חשמונאים stood up for the קדושה וטהרה of כלל ישראל, their holiness and purity.
But now, millennia afterward, there is a group that has hijacked Chanukah for its own motives, defiling it in the process, R"L. An aggressive, dangerous Messianic sect that uses Chanukah as a giant platform to promote themselves and their late leader, which they hold to be the Messiah, despite his passing away over three decades ago. In their zeal to promote themselves and their events, they engage in various questionable activities along the way.
The other day I saw some egregious examples of this when I took a look at a video of a very recent Chanukah event in NYC put on by Chabad-Lubavitch (a branch of, that is part of the allegedly "non-messianist" faction, led by a grandson of a close associate of their late leader) with their ex-follower, the singer Matisyahu.
In the course of it, Chabad-Lubavitch had a young child shout out yechi...three times, promoting their long deceased leader as Messiah, from the stage. Additionally, the performer, Matisyahu, used improper vulgar language in his performance.
Is this what Chanukah is about? Such things are antithetical to the true meaning of the great Yom Tov.
And this is by no means the only way or instance of Chabad-Lubavitch playing (improper) games with it. In Washington, DC, less than a month ago, a prominent Chabad-Lubavitch agent, sang "brachos" (albeit using "Hashem") at a Capitol Congressional event over a menorah which was lit there, the thing is, however, that it was over a week before the holiday then. A Chabad-Lubavitch faux Chanukah. A different example related to the same fellow: at their "National Menorah" lighting" near the White House in the beginning of the Yom tov, a chazan they had there sang the bracha of להדליק נר without saying shem Hashem. Those are just a few prominent examples that we became aware of, who knows what may have happened elsewhere. Such shenanigans cheapen the holy Yomtov.
The גדולי ישראל that warned us against Chabad-Lubavitch (even when they seem on the surface to be doing something right), like Rav Schach zt"l, the Brisker Rav zt"l, and many others, were very wise, understanding, foresighted, and prescient, and have been proven correct on the matter many times over. We need to take a lesson from this in general, with regard to Chabad-Lubavitch, to not fall for their loud, flashy, and glitzy, and gaudy lures even if they seem at first to be kosher, as they have a חזקה, a presumption, based on a long record, to corrupt things with their messianism and mistaken theology, and not to be deceived by their deceptive massive propaganda apparatus.
In the זכות of following our great leaders, our Torah sages and elders, may we be zoche to true holiness and purity, leading the way to the true Moshiach, במהרה בימינו אמן.
