CS, thanks your replying respectfully.
““So, in what mesorah is this stuff OK? Sphard? Teimani? Ashkenaz?”
All the above. Someone mentioned similar stuff by the baba sali, and there were two litvishe sources quoted that area saying the same idea.”
With all due respect, this is just completely false. Minhag Sphard is even stricter on davening late, and I understand they wouldn’t even respond “amein” to a late krias hashatz. The Chofetz Chaim says not eating before Shachris is even more important than davening with a minyan. Maybe, my post was a little out of order. If you thought I was referring to davening at a tzaddik’s grave and the bris picture, then yeah, those aren’t really difficulties for me. I think there are way bigger problems to be concerned with.
If all of your minhagim were sourced in the Shulchan Aruch HaRav, then I think your argument would carry more weight, but that’s not the reality. The S”A HaRav speaks of zman hatefillah (seems to hold like the Magen Avraham, btw), never says it’s OK to eat before davening (to my knowledge), says that you should eat a seudah shlishis, even says you should wrap tefillin on chol hamoed! The point is, very little of modern day Lubavitch goes back to the Alter Rebbe, whom we all respect as a great posek.
By the way, I am aware that when there’s a difference between the Shulchan Aruch HaRav, and the Baal HaTanya’s siddur, Chabad paskens like the siddur. That I would be legitimately interested in talking about (not fighting about), but not on this thread.