Look at what the situation is now.
People who were part of the scam, either knowingly, or duped into it, should speak out now and renounce it. Whether a maggid, a Rabbi, or one of the few Roshei Yeshiva, wake up, and be מתחרט for joining up with Lubavitch and leaving the path of Rav Schach זצ"ל.
ושב ורפא לו
Wishing אחב"י a רפואת הנפש ורפואת הגוף בתוך שאר חולי ישראל.
I'm not sure what your beef is here other than it being Chabad. How many well known organizations out there tout promises from gedolim (usually taken out of context), guaranteed segulas and other such things all in order to prey on the masses to donate to them. Their ads are in every magazine, on every website. Posters with pictures of Harav Chaim Kanievsky plastered on telephone poles all over only to fall off, end up in the gutter and have people step on and run over.
ReplyDeleteInteresting comment.
DeleteIn this case they seemed to be doing something new and different, it seemed to be spreading like wildfire, and I didn't see the regular critics of segulah abuse speaking out.
They were also using name of בעל שם טוב to promote it, which gave it special potency among some people, and left others hesitant to speak out. After all, how can they speak against Baal Shem Tov, someone might think. But even if we accept the Lubavitch tale as being true, it was about a small, local event, in a small town, over two hundred fifty years ago, and not necessarily applicable to a global pandemic today. And it is questionable if Baal Shem Tov himself would agree to what they did. They took in great amounts of money, and were concealing that it was from Lubavitch, so there was a need to expose it. The other cases you refer to, people already know about them, and they are smaller. This was a massive operation, more sophisticated, much more glitzy advertising and online presence, hence more dangerous.
Nu..so they are better salesmen and have a better PR machine. Either way sheker is sheker, if that's what you believe this is, and the other "segulah, havtacha from gedolim" organizations are in the same business of duping people for their money. In fact I would say they're worse. Chabad used a a one time fairytale, for lack of a better term. These other organizations are constant, every day another segulah another havtacha. Making people think that this is the way to get help from H' for what you need. Not davening, not teshuva, not personal accountability for your actions. And on top of that slowly eroding away at people emunas chachomim. How many times can they say that gadol so and so is mavtiach xyz until people stop listening to gedolim altogether.
DeleteYou're absolutely right, but the problem is that Chabad and its allies have done a very good(bad) job in making Rav Shach sound like an irrelevant Yachid. About two years ago Dovid Lichtenstein interviewed someone called Rabbi Lederman, who was supposedly one of Rav Shach's closest Talmidim. Lichtenstein asked the Rabbi why Rav Shach was troubled by Chabad. While he didn't attack his guest like he did to Rabbi Berger. the host made it sound like Rav Shach was a fan of Chabad and the Rebbe, except that there were a few minor details(particularly the Chabad Yomim Tovim) that he found troubling. When the subject was brought to Rabbi Miller, he dismissed it saying,"We don't get involved in arguments between great people."
ReplyDeleteWe have posted before about Lichtenstein and how he has twisted things on his program. I was happy to see criticism (that seemed to be) of him by a leading columnist in a leading Torah publication recently. With regard to someone like him one could apply the words of a piyut recited on Purim, גאה בעשרו. If he distorts words of גדולים and is מגלה פנים בתורה שלא כהלכה, all his gelt will not save him. He has to decide if he wants to be follow the אמת and be a source of light, or do otherwise and descend like a stone.
DeleteRabbi Dovid Hollander OBM once told me the following:Don't try to understand a Rosho because you're not a Rosho. I think it's safe to say that the people who contribute to this site are truth seekers and therefore it's difficult to get a handle on people like Lichtenstein. Clearly he's extremely learned but at the same time he allows his biases to color the truth. Rav Shteinman ZTL put it beautifully and succinctly, it's all about Gaavah. All he has to do is admit he's wrong, or just avoid the subject, but he takes it that extra step. But the problem with such people is that they have followers. I once spoke to a friend who worships Lichtenstein's show. I told him, in no uncertain terms, that Lichtenstein was a liar. He asked me to explain and I told him that on one of his podcasts he claimed that Chabad had produced 300,000 Baal Tshuvas. This fellow listens to every broadcast so he knew that Lichtenstein had said this. I ten asked him if that number was accurate and my friend admitted it wasn't. I then said that well ipso facto that means he's a liar, to which the guy said,"I don't think so." I've found the inability of people in the Yeshivish Chassidish world to think and/or deal with the truth to be shocking. After all don't we live by a Toras Emes?
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