Mod, “Gosh, until you reverted to the beloved “haters” statement I actually valued your perspective and saw you as above the PR stuff. What a let down.”
I should have said “same opponents expressing their opposition and defenders expressing their defense.”
My point was that we pretty much know that some people here take strong issue with Lubavitch and they will probably continue their attacks no matter what, and others here are Lubavitchers (myself included), and they will probably continue their defense no matter what.
attacks, hate, different versions of the same PR point. Pretending it isn’t okay for people to defend Torah values, on both “sides of the aisle” is a PR stunt.
What a let down
Nothing new from what has been going on in hundreds of pages of CR threads of rehashing this topic.
ARSo,
Menachem, welcome back!
Thank you! Busy times, not sure how long often I can pop in.
Regarding your points in response to my post, I guess we see different circles in Chabad.
Now why would the LR stop someone identifying in a manner which would allow him to feel the part fully. The answer that I was given is, as I wrote, to attract others to Lubavich.
The idea of changing levush is a bit more complicated. There were some whom the Rebbe permitted to change their levush and others whom he didn’t. I haven’t yet seen any places where the Rebbe addressed this idea outright (it’s mainly rumors), so I’m not so clear on this, but my understanding of the reasoning for not allowing to change was:
1) Lubavitch was never very into the concept of levush, to an extent it was looked at as a chitzoniusdike idea, and the Rebbe didn’t want people to feel that the way you dress decides if you are Lubavitch or not (people shouldn’t feel that now that they wear a different kind of hat they are considered an official Lubavitcher and potur from avoda…)
2) Often, similar to new baalei teshuva, the family of a new Lubavitcher was very nervous about the change and often something so blatant as changing one’s garments could set off bitter family strife.
3) It is indeed possible that another reason was as ARSo wrote, that the Rebbe felt that by keeping the levush they would have an easier time relating to those from their previous sect, thus making it easier for that individual to do hafatzas hamaayanos, which has been a main focus of the Lubavitcher derech since the times of the Alter Rebbe (originating already from the Baal Shem Tov with chassidus haklolis).
It’s interesting to note that when chassidim came from Russia, many of them were also instructed by the Rebbe not to change their levush from a kasket to a fedora (e.g. the iconic Reb Mendel Futerfas).
Another related incident: Artist Boruch Nachshon joined Chabad from a modern Israeli family in the 50s. Before his chassuna, his mashpia advised him to begin wearing a hat and kapote, but his family (kippa seruga style) didn’t want him to. The Rebbe wrote to him (14 Tammuz 5722):
פשוט שאין זה ענין כלל לעורר רוגז (ועל אחת כמה וכמה – מחלוקת) בדבר הלבוש בעת החופה והחתונה, ושנואה המחלוקת כו’ וגדול השלום.
Since then he wore a french barrett instead of a classic Chabad hat.
(Again, aside from the last story, I haven’t seen anything written about this, so they are just my theories or rumors that I’ve heard. I’ll try to do more research on the matter)