The narrative is interlaced with Dr. Berger's published articles, written correspondences, and transcribed public lectures, in which he passionately appeals to both the leadership of the Orthodox and Chabad communities for an appropriate response to Chabad-Lubavitch messianism.

His views are shared and supported by many prominent Orthodox authorities, including the late Rosh yeshiva ("dean") Rabbi Elazar Shach (see Elazar Shach: Opposition to the Lubavitcher Rebbe) and the vehement opposition of the Rabbinical Seminary of America (Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim) in New York City, and that of the Rabbinical Council of America (See Chabad messianism: Rabbinical Council of America.)

Rabbi Aharon Feldman, the dean of the non-Hasidic Yeshiva Ner Yisrael: Ner Israel Rabbinical College in Baltimore, Maryland, wrote a widely disseminated letter in 2004 which stated that Orthodox Jews should avoid praying in Chabad synagogues that avowed a belief in the Rebbe as the Messiah.

In June 1996, The Jewish Press published a paid advertisement that included a letter with Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik's signature.

publications affiliated with the Lubavitch movement have persisted in stating that I validate their belief that a Jewish Messiah may be resurrected from the dead.

Any statements in that letter which imply an endorsement of their view were not shown to me at the time I signed and I once again repudiate any such ridiculous claim.

[10] Chaim Rapoport has responded with a book-length critique entitled "The Messiah Problem: Berger, the Angel and the Scandal of Reckless Indiscrimination".

The Talmud records what appears to be several instances of students proclaiming their teachers as fit to be the Moshiach while alive and continuing to do so after their demise.