PS when you have people like @83 who think what was done was 100% ok is all the proof that you need a living breathing rebbe.
common, no one has yet answered my question: What about other chassidusen that also have dumb people who do really dumb things like violence and fighting that makes it to the news etc. DESPITE having a living breathing rebbe? The only response I’ve gotten is “How dare you point out problems in any sect which is not Chabad.”
In the Rebbe’s opening address on Yud Shevat 73 years ago, he said that Chabad chassidus doesn’t believe in the concept of relying on the rebbe to do all the work for you. Every chossid has bechira chofshis to work on refining himself and behaving properly, or ch”v the opposite.
Here’s a free translation of that sicha (right after saying the first maamar, formally accepting the nesius):
Fellow Jews, listen now!
Traditionally, Chabad has demanded that every individual do his own avodah alone, instead of relying on the Rebbeim. This is the difference66 between the Polish school of Chassidus and the Chabad school of Chassidus. The former school has a non-literal interpretation of the verse,67 וצדיק באמונתו יחי-ה — “And a tzaddik lives with his faith”: “Do not read yichyeh but [in the causative mood] yechayeh.” I.e., it is the tzaddik who gives life to all those who are bound to him. We of Chabad, however, all have to do our own work alone, with all the 248 organs and 365 sinews of the body and with all the 248 organs and 365 sinews of the soul.
The Sages teach:68 הכל בידי שמים חוץ מיראת שמים — “Everything is in the hands of Heaven except for the fear of Heaven.” I am not (G‑d forbid) withdrawing from giving help to the degree that one’s capabilities allow. However, since “Everything is in the hands of Heaven except for the fear of Heaven,” then if there is no independent individual avodah, what can be gained from giving out manuscripts [of Chassidus], singing niggunim, and saying LeChaim?
The Rebbe [Rayatz] used to warn chassidim against self-delusion. Every individual chassid himself has to transform the folly of the Other Side [i.e., of the forces of evil] and the seething disposition of his animal soul — to kedushah.69