10th Anniversary of The Rebbe's Passing
Tuesday marks the 10th anniversary of the death of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, of blessed memory.
I don’t care what people like this guy think or what maniacs like this one are all about. Chabad has been one of the greatest gifts to the Jewish people in our history, and we should remember and praise the Rebbe for this incredibly important contribution to the world.
I’m sayin’, you don’t have to like every Chabadnik, you don’t have to jive on the Rebbe-as-Moshiach tip, or even appreciate the Mitzvah Tank—but you can’t be just and be down on Chabad as an organization. It be the jernt. Having a free, non-coercive, and open Jewish environment in which to go and have a Shabbos dinner or to do some learning in nearly every district of every country on this planet is a remarkable achievement for which we should all be very grateful.
Yay Rebbe! May Hashem keep you in close company in the world to come.
News Roundup
» JTA
» The Jewish Week
» The Forward
» Jerusalem Post
» Ha’aretz
Also, here’s a pretty interesting writeup on the Rebbe/Carlebach/Shachter split.
They have their cons too… non-coercive?
Come to Toronto and see the way they treat people. Their nice but also VERY pushy. To come to a Jewish highschool and offer for people to shake a lulav on sukkot? fine. If I say I haven’t and dont want to, dont follow me off trying to convince me… that’s what Jews for Jesus do…. it doesn’t impress me.
I have more examples like them setting up a tfillin station on a Hashomer Hatzair table @ yom haatzmaut, and not leaving when asked to, and on and on… yes they do good things… i’m not denying that… I’ve personally benefited from some of those things, but lets not pretend there aren’t problems.
i didn’t say there weren’t problems, i said don’t blame chabad for the acts of certain chabadniks. just like you shouldn’t blame judaism for the acts of some jews.
chabad has an excellent drug and alcohol rehabilitation program that is for jews and non-jews alike. they provide housing during inital rehab as well as during the participant’s transition to normal life. *this* is tikkun olam.
waiting for — even believing in — the “world to come” is very unhelpful here in the world we live in. this is heaven right here. this, almost certainly, the only chance you have to make it work.
I’m with Mobius on this one, but only half-way. By all means, they have done good things. That earns respect and appreciation. On the other hand, their policies are certainly not beyond criticism (to borrow a phrase).
They are practically Messianic in certain religious practices, which is sacrilegious to many religious. Their legendary aggressivity has embarrassed and shamed many. Their insistence on working everywhere in the Jewish world but pushing uniquely Ashkenazi pronunciations and customs is insensitive, to say the least.
But nobody’s perfect. I may sound harsh but, like I say, I’m putting my oar in with Mobius on this one.
Finally someone who doesn’t bitch about how Chabad is the end of Judaism. Say what you will about Chabad but they are 5 steps ahead of everyone else when it comes to outrach.
While Chabad seem to be pushing uniquely Ashkenazi pronunciations, their customs are most assuredly not. After all, the introduction to the Hebrew-English edition of *their* version of the prayers talks about how everyone should throw out the ancestral traditions they inherited from time immemorial in order to adopt the Hasidic/Chabadian customs that they just made up recently, or copied badly from the Sefardim. When Chabadians imply or say outright that the traditional Ashkenazic ways of doing things are either not good enough or outright wrong, sometimes it makes me wonder if there’s some kind of anti-Ashkenaz conspiracy going on out there…
I have a few anecdotes about traditional Ashkenazim being ‘corrected’ by Chabadians for following their ancestral tradition instead of the trendy newfangled Chabadian customs.