I don’t necessarily agree in full with YankelBerel’s understanding of the problem with Lubavich but I definitely agree with him and Avirah that major part of it is the focus on Chabad chassidus and concepts found in Kabbalah.
I have Lubavich relatives with children who try their hardest to get me to accept that the Rebbe is Mashiach and/or alive, and that he is the Nassi Hador (as I have written, a totally non-existent concept for centuries), and in order to “prove” it they quote Kabbalistic concepts which they clearly do not understand, and which I, an absolute novice in Kabbalah, understand better than they do.
I have a better understanding of math and physics than the average person, and I know not only that E=mcSquared but I can explain the meaning of the equation, but I don’t REALLY understand it. That, in my opinion, is how Lubavichers learn and teach chassidus.
Someone mentioned that there was a very good reason that they ruled that Kabbalah should be not be studied by someone under the age of forty, and I believe a major reason for the ban was that concepts that have to REMAIN abstract may be taken literally by someone younger, and lead to hagshamah – believing in a physical manifestation of Hashem c”v. To me, therefore, it is not surprising that Lubavich is able to accept people who believe that their rebbe is akin to Hashem, that he runs the world etc.
Citing the example I brought earlier, perhaps Menachem can tell us how great the outcry in Lubavich was when that crazy wrote “Who Elokeinu?… The rebbe melech hasmashiach, that’s who!” After all, it wasn’t just some looney who said it. It was published in a Lubavich publication which continued to be published long after that issue hit the stands.
Was there an outcry? Was he loudly and vehemently condemned? Perhaps someone can send us a Kol Korei against it. It should certainly have been considered a “chilul Lubavich”!