YS > However, speeches and letters are all about specific audiences and to take those speeches and treat them as halacha applicable l’oilom vo’ed is not a proper mehalech. What worked in the Shtetl doesn’t work in the USA. What worked for Russian immigrants in 1970 doesn’t work for Israeli Yeshiva bachurim in 2023.
This is an interesting point. Indeed, we historically have this balance between written and oral sources. There is a lot of Gemora built from maase Rav and it is an appropriate way to learn halakha, better than the books. Obviously, the Teacher should be someone who values what he does and says. You seem to imply that we are “better than that” now – when we have books and searchable databases … I do not fully agree. And a lot of uniformization, black-ha(ugh)tiness, and loss of minhagim are due to peple abandoning their local teachers.
So, chabad, like everyone else, have a right to follow on their teacher. Now, the way they do it is sometimes bizarre, and also now the generation who did not see him in person.. ok, so they hear stories from their parents …