As someone with roots among the earliest proponents of chasidus, leaders who tried to integrate many of its principles into the kehilos they led (with mixed responses), I feel, RSRH, that you put it succinctly and beautifully. Popa, you are right as well, that sometimes these Hegelian movements within Yiddishkeit end up with a synthesis that is unacceptable…but sometimes they flower and enrich all of klal yisroel, like chasidus has done. Perhaps we are seeing a moment like that now, and our responsibility isn’t to stifle such a movement, but rather to influence it so that it stays within the boundaries of Halocho. That won’t be accomplished through denigration or calling it apikorsus or amaratzus or reform.
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