Discussion on Controversial Rituals

There was one more viral image going around,

and this is the one everyone's been

talking about, is this, Dirk just pulled up on screen,

stained mattress that was pulled out of the tunnel, being

carried by members of the synagogue.

So there's a lot of crazy conspiracy theories.

I don't wanna go down any tasteless rabbit holes.

But David, if you could, explain why was there a mattress

in the tunnels, and what is-

Well-

... this stain? A lot of folks are wondering, is this stain feces?

No. No, it's not feces.

What is it?

The stain is blood, and basically-

Oh. All right. Well-

... we do, we did rituals. I said that before.

There were some rituals that, that we, uh, go... we do in the tunnels.

And sometimes the rituals might involve, uh, uh, someone who recently

died, and we'll bring them down there, and we're trying to do a ritual to bring

back the, the Messiah, which is Schneerson,

if you heard about him on the news.

No.

So he died many years ago, but, uh, we have rituals that, uh,

we believe we can

bring him back. And so, uh-

So how do these rituals work?

Was that the main guy who was

sort of instructing on the tunnels?

Well, that was a long time. He's the... He's, like, the head...

He's the head rabbi, and-

Right

... he's the guy that, uh, uh, we, uh, look for for direction.

Hmm.

Right. And the news was saying that he is potentially

not passed on.

Right. That's right. So we don't know that,

so we try to do rituals to try to see

if we can-

To bring him-

... bring him back

... back.

Correct. Exactly.

So how do these... Can you explain the rituals,

and why does it involve a mattress?

Uh, I, I don't wanna go into details of the

rituals, but basically we don't put the

body on the floor. We put the body-

Right

... on the mattress, and sometimes, uh, we might make an incision somewhere

on the body and some... a little bit of blood will come out.

How did you, like, learn of this, though?

Uh, again, through other members.

Okay. And you don't wanna get into the ritual at

all? Like, s- so you're laying someone who's...

Who are these bodies that you're putting on the mattress?

Uh, these are basically m- uh, members of the synagogue who recently

passed

away.

Oh.

And we're-

So they're dead.

Right. They're already dead.

Oh.

And, and then-

You missed that part, Tony?

I, I didn't know if there were people sacrificing their lives

or something.

No, they're not sacrificing their lives. They died of natural causes or whatever.

Oh.

And before you bury them in, in a cemetery, you basically bring them

down.

Into the tunnel.

For a ritual. That's it.

Hmm.

And the incision is just part of the ritual, and hoping to bring back the

Messiah. The ritual itself o- is basically, what

we believe in is to bring that individual back.

So the blood, like I said, see in my notes here,

I said the blood's from the

incision made in a mattress.

Hmm.

And we hope that the, the h- we hope that the Messiah's spirit will come into

that.

That's what we hope for. Okay? We believe, like you said, you even brought it up,

and you know that-

Uh-huh

... Schneerson was the Messiah, and we believe in him.

He died many years ago, but you said he might be alive, which

is possible.

And we j- and if he is dead, we try to bring him back. If he's alive,

let hope...

good. Let it be.