Charlie Brown, I am not familiar with any special psak about Lubavitchers and Sukkah or Shalosh Seudos. I will try to ask a Lubavitcher directly. (BTW, doesn’t the reason you propose sound eerily like the reason the yeshivishe velt didn’t encourage the establishment of the State of Israel, because it was too holy.)
Matisyohu, your words insulting Norman Lamm are totally out of place. What ever happened to the Mishnah of Hamevazeh Talmidei Chachamim in Chelek? Why do you think you have a heter to insult a big Talmid Chochom who has semicha from one of the gedolei hador(Reb Yoshe Ber), just because you are from a different hashkafah? What is your hava amina that the gedolim from your circles are bigger than gedolim from other circles? WHy does giving respect to gedolim only apply to the ones who you hand pick, and not to others. Why do we not all have the right to hand pick gedolim and insult the ones we disagree?
This, my friend, is why we are still in golus. It is not like I made it up, it is in the gemara and called sinas chinom. The only aveirah of Rabbi Lamm and YU is that they teach secular knowledge. Sorry, but there is no halachic basis for any issur on learning secular knowledge. It is simply a frum (and meaningless) thing to knock it. Did you know that the Mishnah Brura paskens one can use a telescope on Shabbos to learn the chochma of astronomy? The gemara in Sanhedrin says one needed to know 70 languages to be appointed to Sanhedrin. The Rambam says that anything proven scientifically byond a doubt has the halachic status of divrei neviim.
The fact is that in the 20th century the world advanced, and one needs advanced secular knowledge to function and make a parnasa. I have much trouble and indeed it has affected my emunas chachamim in understanding the vehement opposition to secular knowledge by the gedolim of this generation. I think it is a major mistake, and is causing kids to go off the derech because of the vacuum. Mishnah in Kesuvos says even a wealthy wife with a gazillion servants still needs to do some work, or she will turn to immoral activities. Why did the mishnah not say she should join a tehillim group, or learn tanach with all her free time? The answer is that the pressure of work and deadlines, etc. in the real world does a person a lot of good in keeping him focused.
It is a new thing that we make fun of secular studies, and try to turn back the clock to the time we all rode on horses. I personally think the gedolim have made a huge mistake in judging the nature of this century by screaming aganst college. In Israel they scream against secualr studies past 8th grade! Yet I will never insult them. I have strong questions, but I treat them with derech eretz, and try my hardest to be dan them lchaf zchus and understand a rationale for what they say. I will be going to speak with my Rebbeim one of whom is mishpacha of Reb SHmuel Kamenetsky, and the oher is Talmid muvhak of Reb Leizer Silber and mechaber of 11 sefarim on shas to try to understand what to make of this sad situation. I personally can’t make heads or tails, and it seems so obvious that the current system is totally messed up. Why do I get letters from chareidi yungerleit asking for tzedaka which are signed by the very same rabbonim who assur college and prevent these people from making parnasa in the first place? Yet the biggest mitzvah is to insult YU because they teach secular studies.