Reply To: Should we try to encourage Mashichists and Elokists to return to the fold?

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#2088672
Avram in MD
Participant

n0mesorah,

“Why Chabad does not have a track with zero kabalistic teachings, is a good question that will not get a good answer.”

That doesn’t really bother me. The backbone of Chabad is the Tanya, which, if I understand correctly (and Chabad posters please correct me if I’m mistaken), is a sefer that brings the kabbalistic secrets of Torah, which they call Chassidus, out of the realm of the esoteric to make them accessible to every Jew. So to have a “Chabad” track that ignores what makes Chabad unique doesn’t really make sense, just like a BA in art history program wouldn’t make sense in BMG.

Your later argument seems to be that mishichism/elokism/etc are simple people misunderstanding kabbalistic terminology. If so, then is it not dangerous to disseminate kabbalistic concepts to those who will likely misunderstand and go astray? Your earlier argument seemed to be that non-Lubavitchers just don’t understand the kabbalistic concepts and terminology that Chabad uses. If so, and the Tanya is kabbalah for the masses, why can’t the concepts just be explained?