Aveirah, you and I are again having one of those rare occasions where we agree on something – I agree with most of your views on Chabad.
A little while back, I was out of town caring for a sick relative. There was a Chabad family staying in the same place I was (a bikur cholim house), and one Shabbos, the guy decided to try and convert me to Lubavitch. So he began (without my asking him at all), to tell me some of the beliefs of Lubavitch. I interrupted him, and told him, “Look, I’m not interested in becoming a chabadnik. If you want to have a discussion, that’s fine, but then you’ll have to allow me to respond to your views, and tell you the issues I have with them, along with my other issues with Chabad. If you or I feel like we’re uncomfortable with the conversation, we can stop.”
He agreed to this, and then continued telling me his beliefs. I had numerous questions, and told him the halachic issues with his beliefs. (My favorite was when he told me that zman Krias Shema is not really a halacha, it’s a nice thing to do.) Within a few minutes of my starting to tell him my issues, he told me he was uncomfortable and wanted to stop the conversation.
Many Chabadniks limit themselves to learning the Rebbe’s teachings, to the exclusion of everything else. They’ll learn the sichos, read the letters, etc. Ask them to open a Gemara, and they have no idea how to learn it. They’ll only be able to quote the things the Rebbe said about it.
The wife of the guy I mentioned earlier once told me how the Rebbe was “clearly the undisputed leader of his generation!” I replied that R’ Shach zt”l clearly disputed it, as did many others. Just because his own followers viewed him as being the greatest in his generation doesn’t make it true.
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