Reply To: Clarification to mod and DaMoshe

Arso,

I must protest your general denigration of an entire demographic of baalei teshuva. Baalei teshuva turn their entire lives over for Hashem, sometimes unfortunately against their families will, and have a burning sincerity that guides all they do. As a demographic, they are much more sincere and driven than the ffb population. Many ffb continue whatever they grew up with, at their comfort level, whereas baalei teshuva are willing to go as far as they can to get closer to Hashem.

Once someone asked the Rebbe of the advisability of admitting their children to our schools, and the Rebbe stopped him with the clear message that these are my children.

The challenge is that many times they are lacking the support they need to fully integrate into the regular frum standards etc. This is mainly due to the impossibility of the bt schools/ campus shluchim etc keeping up with each alumnus when there are kah so many. So once they’ve learned the basics and left home/ school, they’re pretty much on their own, and it’s up to each one to find their own support which can be challenging when you don’t have family connections and are not familiar with the frum world. Some are a bit clueless as to why certain social norms out standards matter, as there’s only so much they can learn in the time they have in school, and they focus on shabbos/ Kashrus, Chassidus (which continues the flame for the commitment burning) etc.

Another challenge is that due to their background, it is often hard for bt to reach the level of refinement that ffb hopefully grew up with.

I’ve heard a lubavitch mashpia speak on this, encouraging bts to move back to where they started off so they can continue their growth there under the shluchim they started off with.

But there are many baalei teshuva who do fully integrate, and as a demographic, they contribute so much with bringing Yiddishkeit with their fire and sincerity to places not so accessible for ffb Chabad, whether it’s on shlichus (different when you’ve grown up not frum and can fully relate), business, and so many creative forms of business, etc etc.

There are few ffb who can match baalei teshuva in their sincerity and drive- only those who have similarly worked on themselves in their Avodas Hashem to this degree.

They add so much to our community, and whereas a lack of something in a bt is usually due to ignorance, or lack of support, ffb children can go the same way without that excuse.