Jacob Immanuel Schochet
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Jacob Immanuel Schochet is a rabbi, academic and scholar who has written and lectured extensively on the history and philosophy of Chassidism and topical themes of Jewish thought and ethics. He is a renowned authority on Jewish Philosophy and Mysticism. He is rabbi of Cong. Beth Joseph, and professor-emeritus of Philosophy at Humber College, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Rabbi Schochet also lectures on Jewish Bioethics at University of Toronto Medical School.
Rabbi Schochet is a son of Rabbi Dov Yehuda and Mrs. Sarah Schochet. The elder Rabbi Schochet was born in Telsiai (Telshe, Telz) Lithuania, and was one of the foremost alumni of the Telshe yeshiva. The elder Rabbi Schochet was a rabbi in Basel, Switzerland from 1931 until 1946, thus surviving World War II. Shortly after emigrating to Toronto in 1952, Rabbi and Mrs. Schochet and most of their ten children, joined the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, a radical move for a family with a strong Misnaged background and orientation. Numerous reasons are cited to explain this conversion, among them a miracle that the Lubavitcher Rebbe performed in saving the life of the youngest daughter after she had suffered severe burns. In order to emphasize that the family regarded itself as extending into Lubavitch rather than removing itself from Telshe, the younger Rabbi Schochet opens his book [[Mystical Concept in Chassidism]] with a quotation from Rabbi Joseph Leib Bloch, the Rosh Yeshiva of the Telshe yeshiva under which the elder Rabbi Schochet studied.
He has authored more than a dozen books on a range of topics with particular emphasis on comparative religion. He is an international lecturer and is a member of the executive committee of the Rabbinical Alliance.
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[edit] Controversy
The Kabbalah Center opened a still-pending slander lawsuit in 2002 against Rabbi Jacob Immanuel Schochet, after he spoke out against the movement.
"I'm concerned that the Kabbalah Centers are exploiting people's legitimate concern for spirituality for their own financial gain," Rabbi Jacob Immanuel Schochet told The Enquirer.
"I advise not only my congregants, but all people to stay away from the Kabbalah Centers. And if you see Madonna coming, run the other way" Schochet is quoted to have said.[1]
[edit] Jews for Jesus
Rabbi Schochet is also known for his outspoken opinions about Jews for Jesus and Christian missionaries that target Jews. "For a Jew, however, any form of shituf is tantamount to idolatry in the fullest sense of the word. There is then no way that a Jew can ever accept Jesus as a deity, mediator or savior (messiah), or even as a prophet, without betraying Judaism. To call oneself, therefore, a 'Hebrew-Christian,' a 'Jew for Jesus,' or in the latest version a 'messianic Jew,' is an oxymoron. Just as one cannot be a 'Christian Buddhist,' or a 'Christian for Krishna,' one cannot be a 'Jew for Jesus.'" Rabbi J. ImmanuelSchochet said. [2]
[edit] Chabad Messianism and Modern Orthodoxy
Rabbi J. Immanual Schochet is known as opposing the Messianism within Chabad. He is also called ideas in Modern Orthodoxy heretical.
Kedma: Do you see Messianism as a dangerous force in Chabad and do you speak out against it?
Schochet: I definitely always did, and continue to speak out against it.
Kedma: So then doesn’t it scare you that even 50 percent of the teachers teaching young children are Messianist?
Schochet: Not really, because many so-called Messianists have left that fold. As they grow older, they grow wiser. So number one—they drop it. Secondly, even those who remain Messianists, you have many different groups among them. You have those who simply believe—yes, the Rebbe will be Moshiach, which I would call a stupid belief. It is stupidity but essentially harmless. Then you have the real extreme fringe elements who, for example, would deny that the Rebbe died or would insert certain claims that I would call heretical ideas—and with regards to them I am in agreement with Berger. These, however, are a very very very very minute, fringe element of the fringes of the fringes. It is a terrible situation, it certainly gives a bad name to Chabad, to Lubavitch and most of all to the Rebbe, but I don’t see that as a real danger for Judasim [sic] any more than I see danger in any other heretical ideas that you can find in the various so-called ‘denominations’ of the Jewish community, including the so-called Modern Orthodox. [3]
