A Lubavitcher has written a piercing piece decrying the terrible spiritual decline in Chabad in recent times due to outside influences entering via their shlichus system. In areas like dress, lack of צניעות and eidelkeit, adoption of inferior music and entertainment modes, and more.
It is a de facto admission that the גדולי ישראל, זכר צדיקים לברכה, who questioned and opposed modern Chabad were wise, farsighted, and prescient.
In a time when too many have been duped by the massive PR of the Chabad-Lubavitch propaganda apparatus, it is a welcome and desirable corrective for people to see to get a better handle on the reality of the matter.
That fellow wrote beautifully but the basic problem is that the Chabad paradigm is flawed from the outset. The Rebbe promised his Shluchim that their religious standards wouldn't suffer as long as they're connected to him. Well that's nice but they're no longer connected to him. (Edited)
ReplyDeleteFrom 2003-2009 I went to a shul which had a Chabad Rabbi. I was made the Gabbai and the Rabbi told me that I couldn't give an Aliyah to a certain Kohen who was married to a Gerusha. After leaving the Shul, I discovered that two of the men, who regularly got Aliyahs, were married to shiksas. The Rabbi liked them because they were Russian and they worshiped him. While many Lubavichers are able to maintain their personal religious standards, when it comes to Kiruv they just make up whatever comes to mind. Recently, Chaim Bruk spoke about his wonderful Purim in Montana. One whole couple, almost certainly intermarried, came to hear the Megillah on Motzi Shabbos. They tell themselves and others how great they are and how much they've accomplished, but it's 99.99% Sheker.
ReplyDeleteSometimes basic facts may be accurate, but they blow them up, present them in a manner way out of proportion. There are Lubavitchers who go to places that are thinly populated Jewishly (like Kentucky, Montana, places outside the USA) and then present themselves as the representatives of Judaism in those places. They present themselves as great successes and great leaders. They go on X and elsewhere and are busy tweeting their PR. But take a look at their houses of worship sometime. Many times they don't even have a minyan. It's long time that people got wise to this common Chabad-Lubavitch scam, stop falling for it, and stop supporting those scam artists with their subversive and dangerous agenda. They try to also try to fool the media, politicians, federations, and so on, to get them to send publicity and funding their way. People need to wake up and look beyond the surface of their PR, to see the reality, and stop getting fooled by those hucksters selling the Brooklyn Bridge over and over to the naive and gullible.
DeleteRabbi Akiva said that Veahavta Lerayecha Komocha is the great principle of the Torah. Chabad heartily agrees and then adds that only they exhibit Ahavas Yisroel. What the masses don't understand is that you don't love other Jews unless you're ready, willing and able to criticize them. In 2014 Mayor Bloomberg won the Genesis Prize given to the world's "greatest Jew." The Jewish Week objected, but Shmuel Butman endorsed Mr. Bloomberg, calling him "a committed Jew."
ReplyDeleteVIN just announced that Chabad was mentioned on Jeopardy. That's it. Moshiach is coming.
ReplyDeleteIt’s nice to see such a refreshingly honest self-assessment published on a prominent Chabad website.
ReplyDeleteHowever the endemic problems Chabad suffers from are not only a result of influences from far-flung places, as he believes.
From the outset, the seventh rebbe shifted the emphasis in Chabad from focusing on one’s self to concentrating on outsiders. He unleashed his followers to the streets, at the cost of lowering their own standards. They exposed themselves to the outside world for the sake of spreading Chassidus in the streets. Naturally, the outside influences and popular culture came pouring in.