@Berries wtf
It is not yet known exactly who built the tunnel, how they did so or what they hoped to accomplish. But two men who said they spoke to some of those who broke through the synagogue wall said the motive was to hasten an expansion of 770 – a move that they say the Lubavitcher movement’s leader, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known as the Rebbe, called for more than three decades ago.
The desired expansion is a part of a conflict over the future of the movement that stretches back at least 30 years.
The Hasidic group has been reckoning with an internal dispute since the Rebbe died in 1994. No successor has ever been named.
Mainstream Lubavitcher leadership is committed to carrying out the Rebbe’s teachings and vision. But a smaller faction within the movement claims that the Rebbe is in fact the Messiah, and some in that group believe he never actually died. Legal disputes about the role of 770 – including whether a plaque on an adjacent building could refer to the Rebbe as deceased – have dragged on for years.