R. Mendelle Vizhnitzer proclaims the tail doctrine. The doctrine urges his followers to think of themselves as tails with
respect to their rebbe: just as the tail follows the body and cannot
sever itself from it, nor control it –so ought a hosid follow his rebbe
without any digressions, vacillation, or doubt. He even said the following:
Even if it seems that the Rebbe is transgressing a clear halokhoh from the mishneh beruroh, does not pray in public or not at all, or even if he does things that our forefathers did not do such as igniting a cigar in public or in the midst of a holy discourse –he [the hosid] remains clinging to his holy and pure rebbe… with a fealty of heart and soul, to him and to his pure path.Believe it or not, in the recent Tail Doctrine campaign R. Mendelle taught his hasidim a new song to be sung before reciting the Psalms and after evening toroh lessons:
“we believe in the holy opinion of the holy Yeshuos Moshe (viz. his father, so named after a book that he composed), namely shvantzonus (the practice of being a tail; tail-ism)”
