Reply To: Chassidus

I looked up some of the early arguments against chassidus, from the Gra as well as some of his students. Some of the things I found were shocking.

The teachings of the Besht were most notably written in the Toldos Yaakov Yosef, and that is where a lot of the arguments went against.

One thing which many Rabbonim were against was the idea of improper thoughts, especially during davening. The Toldos YaaKov Yosef wrote that if a man gets improper thoughts during davening, such as lustful thoughts about a woman, he should not try to dismiss them from his mind. Rather, he should hold onto them and concentrate on them. The words of davening will sanctify it, and turn it into pure love of Hashem. Most Rabbonim considered this absurd, and argued strongly against this idea.

Another idea was the role of the tzaddik. In Chassidus, the average person is deemed incapable of rising spiritually on his/her own. The Tzaddik (or Rebbe) has a job, to uplift the people. In order to do so, the Tzaddik must descend down to their level, and then bring them up alongside himself. Again, most Rabbonim were against willfully lowering oneself spiritually.