The Felt Need for a Messiah
“Felt needs” are a big topic in ministry. One scholar defines “felt needs” as “changes deemed necessary by people to correct the deficiencies they perceive in their community.”[1]
A community’s felt needs might be for higher social status, access to clean water, or better education for their children. Felt needs are subjective, and as such they may or may not overlap with vital needs.[2]
Many ministries are modeled around meeting a felt need in a community, thus creating natural inroads to the gospel. For example, a Christian after-school program focuses on the need of working parents for a safe place to send their children before the workday ends. While the children wait for their parents to take them home, they receive homework help and Bible teaching.
While many felt needs are material (especially in the Western world), felt needs can also be spiritual.
The Chabad Tunnels
A mini-riot in Brooklyn made headlines in January after it was discovered that a group of yeshiva (Jewish religious school) students had dug a tunnel connected to a famous synagogue in Crown Heights. When a cement truck came to fill in the tunnel, an altercation broke out between the students and the police.
In an article published by The Guardian, Chananya Groner explains the religious backdrop to this strange event. To make a long story short, the renowned Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (also known as “The Rebbe”) once taught at this famous synagogue. The Rebbe taught that it was his people’s task to bring the Messiah into the world, and some of his followers declared that Schneerson himself was the Messiah.
Schneerson’s death in 1994 naturally caused some confusion in the Chabad community. Opposing beliefs about his messiah status led to a decades-long conflict over the management of the synagogue.
The students who dug the tunnel have been identified as “extreme Meshichists” – a faction of Chabad Hasidim who not only believe Schneerson is the Messiah, but also that he is still alive and will return. It is believed that the purpose behind their unsanctioned excavations was to expand the synagogue to accommodate more people – a wish of Schneerson’s that was never realized. Sadly, this simple explanation has not satisfied online conspiracy theorists who have taken this opportunity to spin conspiracy theories based on age-old antisemitic tropes.
The Felt Need for a Messiah
It’s a bizarre tale at first glance, especially for those of us far removed from the context of Chabad Hasidism. Yet for a small faction, it’s a paramount issue, justifying violence and other illegal activities. And the behavior of these few fanatics is adversely affecting the wider Chabad community.
When I look at the situation, I see a tragic case of mistaken identity. The extremist students who dug the tunnel are correct in their belief that the Messiah has come; they’ve just identified the wrong person.
To be clear, the tunneling and rioting were carried out by a small group of fanatics whose actions have been reprehended by the wider Jewish community. Yet their actions reveal a felt need shared by most of the ultra-Orthodox world (a need shared by the entire world, actually): the need for a messiah.
This is not a need that can be met through food drives, education, or material aid. This is a deep spiritual need only the Spirit Himself can meet. But He works through the love and prayer of believers to reveal the true Messiah to those who seek Him.
Written by Miriam, Life in Messiah Communications Coordinator
1. Please pray for people in the Chabad movement, that God will reach them with the Good News that the Messiah has come and is risen!
2. Pray for the ministry of Life in Messiah as we strive to address the spiritual need of the Jewish people.
Endnotes:
[1] Read an abstract of the article here.
[2] Being subjective does not make felt needs less important. In the Gospels we see Jesus healing the blind and lame (Matthew 9:1–8, John 9:1–7), providing food (John 6:1–4) and wine (John 2:1–11), and performing other miracles that were not strictly necessary for their survival. Jesus’ concern for people’s spiritual and physical well-being is the standard most ministries strive to emulate.