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ujm said: Not everyone subscribes to that Chabad belief.
It is most definitely not exclusively a “Chabad belief”. At any rate, they hold that way, and they don’t care what anyone else holds. You don’t have to do it.
ujm said: I dare say that is a minority opinion.
Even אם תמצי לומר that it is so, something by no means certain, so they are being מזכה Yidden to do Mitzvos according to a ‘minority opinion’, as opposed to not doing them at all.
ujm said: And people often want to be polite or friendly. So if someone smilingly offers you something you might accept it to humor him or engage with him in a friendly way, but no more.
Why is that worse than a three year old doing a Mitzvah to get a lollypop? Jewishly speaking, these are mostly ‘big three year olds’ as opposed to real ‘kofrim’. As it happens, there are unfortunately some (Jewish) people who refuse to put on Tefillin even when approached. So there definitely is such an option. If someone really doesn’t believe (or so claims), why should he feel obliged to humor a perfect stranger, who he might even view with hostility? Therefore, if someone does choose to put on Tefillin, it shows he DOES believe on some level. That might even count as a הרהור תשובה to make him a Kosher Jew for those five minutes even לשיטתך, by the way. (Which is one of the סניפים used by Poskim who permit and even encourage such activity.) It’s the Satan’s job to be מקטרג and always look for flaws and ulterior motives in people’s Mitzvos, you don’t need to help him…
Let me ask you a question. If you were a Hatzalah volunteer, and a non-Frum Jew was having a heart attack ר״ל, would you really and truly be מורידין ולא מעלין, or would you (at LEAST) say ספק פיקוח נפש להחמיר when you have BOTH a פלוגתא דרבוותא and a ספק במציאות?
AAQ said: You don’t have to focus just on that one event. It is not as if Chabad just doing that. It is part of their trying to find and touch non-observant Jews.
Correct, but the discussion (which is in fact a discussion in contemporary Poskim) started with Tefillin because theoretically there is a ‘down side’ of ‘defiling’ the Kedusha of the Tefillin. Getting people to do Lulav and Esrog or hear Megillah etc. is a complete no-brainer that it is muttar. As soon as we have determined that the person putting on Tefillin is in fact a בר חיובא and has at least minimal intention to do a Mitzvah, it isn’t considered ‘defiling’ the Tefillin. That is the same Heter we have to put on Tefillin… The Lubavitcher Rebbe pointed out that someone putting on Tefillin for the first time in his life, for just a few minutes, is actually much LESS likely to ‘space out’ and be מסיח דעת than we are…
YYA> discussion (which is in fact a discussion in contemporary Poskim) started with Tefillin because theoretically there is a ‘down side’ of ‘defiling’ the Kedusha of the Tefillin)
I get it. Still, focusing on such a psak focuses on the big picture of what Chabad shluchim achieve. I am not suggesting mitzva b’yadei avera, but just fair appreciation. Especially when criticism comes from people who did not bother to do anything themselves…
I came up of an interesting definition of Chabad in R Soloveitchik 1976 hesped for R Rivkin, a Chabad Rosh Yeshiva at Torah Vadaas:
Therefore, having spent my young years in Choslovich and being familiar with chassidus, and particularly Chabad, if you were to ask me what Chabad wanted to teach Jews, I will give you the answer. Chassidus, in general, and the mission of the Baal Shem Tov, and particularly Chabad, was how to recite a berachah! As the Gemara states in Perek HaMeiniach (Bava Kamma, 30a): “One who wants to become a chassid, should fulfill matters of berachos,” meaning, “Do you know who is a chassid? One who knows how to recite a berachah.”YYA> As soon as we have determined that the person putting on Tefillin is in fact a בר חיובא and has at least minimal intention to do a Mitzvah
Is the concern that the person does not care what he is doing or whether he is Jewish?
In terms of not caring, this might happen but how do we verify. Modern people are very fickle. I’ve accompanied a Chabadnik to blow a shofar to a pizza guy who continued making pizza while the shofar was sounding. I think he was paying attention, but it was really hard to say. This was not his first year, so there was no explaining happening. In the hospital, patients were aware and grateful, except I did not see those in worst condition, as he went there by himself.
As to non-Jewish: I understand that generally if someone presents himself in a shul as a Jew, we do not question his Jewishness. In theory, he might be a reform convert or even a curious Buddhist.. Can we stretch this to someone coming up to a tefilin stand that the person understands that this is a Jewish thing.
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