farbycoffee,
“we do tend to know about our personal Rebbes because they are our rebbes.”
That is fine, and given my family’s background and location, my children do/will tend to know more about our personal poskim, and gedolim such as Rav Moshe Feinstein and the Chofetz Chaim, than say the dayan in Kalamazoo, the Baba Sali or the Skulener Rebbe. But relative familiarity is not what I’m talking about. From my perspective, it seems that many in Chabad give little to no acknowledgement of any contemporaneous Yiddishkeit or Torah outside of Chabad at all, almost as if they are sundered from the rest of the Jewish world and we’re actually two separate religious groups. I think that situation is accentuated in Syag’s community, and more muted in mine. And I know that many in Chabad will say that is because of misnagdus, and many outside of Chabad will say that is because Chabad believes non-Chabad Torah is inferior and unworthy of attention. But this communal situation is why I think simply saying the mishichists are nuts is not ending the debate.