Ker-a-velt is doing an excellent job of explaining the tzaddik. Lekutei Moharan is a great source of info as well.
There’s a website called “Identifying Chabad” which purports to show that Chabad is a”z. While the website makes some good points, he displays an utter lack of knowledge of classical chassidus, which results in him calling claims made by all classic chasidish sefarim, accepted by everybody (i.e, Noam Elimelech, Tanya, Kedushas Levi) kefira, and tries to pin those claims on Chabad. Grey Matter, you also seem to have that same issue. I have studiously tried to avoid that, and tried to only bring claims unique to contemporary Chabad that cannot even be sourced to the Rebbe (ie, the Rebbe is Moshiach, is found in all objects and is memale kol olmin, one may daven to him, etc) which are complete and utter kefira.
BTW, Keravelt, I loved how you nonchalantly explained the atzmus sicha in a noncontroversial way without bringing attention to it. If only all chabadniks had the brains to understand it like you (which IMHO was the Rebbe’s original intention, as he clearly states in that sicha he is not meaning to say anything controversial and should be interpreted as such).
I have a hunch that chabadniks who study nonchabad Torah and/or are familiar with the original chassidic sefarim are much more likely to interpret the Rebbe’s teachings nonradically, while those who are baalei teshuva or just learn sichos without the background are much more likely to interpret the Rebbe’s teaching in a new fashion that seemingly contradicts basic tenets of yiddishkeit. But I don’t have definite proof to this.
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