I apologize if what I am about to write is obvious to many but I don’t believe that it is, and I am almost certain that it is not clear to the lubavitch posters.
We all know that it is very unlikely that a poster who has a particular viewpoint will be “turned around” by anything we write, regardless of which side of the argument we are coming from. True, people who don’t know any better or have unwittingly fallen for hype may be influenced one way or the other, but there aren’t too many of those among us.
That having been said, however, there is a major mission that those of us who have been critical of lubavitch practices etc are attempting to achieve in regards to the understanding of the lubavitch posters. We are trying to convey how you have not convinced us that we can accept YOU having these beliefs.
I am not a Satmar chossid and I (based on those I rely on for Torah and hashkofo) don’t agree with a majority of their views. But I can accept that they hold those views because they follow their rebbe’s view and I admit that his views are not antithetical to Torah. They are incorrect, in my “group’s” opinion, but they are not wrong. (And if you’re going to ask, “Who cares what you think? Since when are you a rebbe?” The answer is, “I care what I think because in the end I have to decide what to accept and what not to accept.” It is always up to the individual to decide what and in whom to believe. You lubavitch chassidim have also decided that you believe in your rebbe. No one can decide that for you.)
On the other hand we, apparently quite a number of us, believe that practices and views discussed here – e.g. nossi hador, dor shvi’i, atzmus melubash beguf, pictures used at a bris etc. – are not only wrong, but that they are antithetical to the Torah, and we just won’t accept that you have some higher or better or even lesser view that we have to accept as being your right. In other words, we don’t think YOU have the right to believe them.
Therefore, by telling us that the Lubavitcher rebbe said such-and-such doesn’t solve anything, as that is the source of the problem.
I’m not trying to offend anyone, and if I did it was just because I wanted to clarify what they don’t seem to get.
Did I get the feeling of many posters right?