Reply To: Validity of Vilna Gaon's Cherem Against Chassidim

Astrix don’t nitpick I don’t think he was trying to be mevazeh chassidim. It’s normal for a litvak to follow the Gra over the Besht. And the truth is that mainstream yiddishkeit at the time was the way of the Gra. The whole point the Baal Shem Tov was making was to make a change to make yiddishkeit more accessible to the am ha’aretz.