Menachem: “Otherwise, I’m just wasting my breath.”
You won’t be wasing your breath if you explain how the story of R Chaim Brisker is relevant to those who have kashas on Lubavich.
And while I have your attention, I want to point out something that I don’t think has been mentioned – at least, I haven’t mentioned it and I don’t recall others mentioning it.
Were Lubavich to have these weird and possibly heretical views, but they kept them to themselves, I, and I assume others, would not be so vehement in attacking them. Take Satmar, for example. I totally disagree with their views on the State of israel, but I can handle them because they don’t usually try to force their views on me.
Lubavich, on the other hand, have an agenda, and that is that the entire world has to recognize that the late rebbe is the Nassi Hador and that therefore everyone has to do what he says. Learning nigleh on Shabbos or before davening is wrong. Eating gebrokts is wrong. Even putting on tefillin differently is wrong. And don’t tell me that’s not true because decades of experience – it sounds like from even before you were born – have shown me that it is true.
I’ll give you one example. My sister-in-law was in Meron this last Shabbos and on Friday she overheard a Lubavicher woman asking a Sefardi women if her daughter lights Shabbos candles. The latter said that her daughter does.
“With a beracha?”
“No. Without.”
“Well she should make a beracha.”
“But our minhag is not to.”
“The Lubavicher rebbe said girls should. Do you think he doesn’t know what he’s talking about?!”
It’s this typical type of behaviour that really gets on people’s nerves, and that’s why we are so often on the attack. That, and the posters/pictures/stickers of Melech Hamashiach put all over the place, even on private property.
If you would “leave us alone” we wouldn’t go on the attack nearly as much. Of course, your answer will likely be that your rebbe wanted you to convince everyone that he is a Navi/Nassi/Mashiach, so that’s what you have to do. And that just compounds the problem.
And just to make things clear. The above is NOT my major complaint with Lubavich. It’s just the reason that I find it difficult to remain silent.