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So we
discussed RMS yesterday, backdating the post to soon after his passing. I got all kinds of messages, both here and in private, how I was asking a silly question re: why did he never mention
Chabad. He learned and loved
sifrei Chabad but never would he mention them by name in public. The more respectful ones will tell me that it wasn't what he was preaching, so if he did mention
Chabad he would use
pareve terms like צדיקי אמת or מקובלים. He was a
Litvisher, so why mention
Chabad. OK. Whatever. Others, those who have big mouths, speak how "today's
Chabad" was a "perversion" of the REAL
Chabad. As if. As if he knew. As if he
ever bothered to speak to anybody in
Chabad. I mean it's nice that he discovered a whole new world in
Tanya and
Likkutei Torah, but just like every other
limmud you need to have a
Rebbi. Don't think you know just because you have a good head, and then go and dismiss thousands of others who follow a
mesorah for 200+ years. Did you ever make an appointment with an "expert" in
Sifrei Chabad who has a
mesorah and discuss with him, try to learn from/with him? And if you think you can do it on your won what does that say about you?
Then I wanna know why someone like our friend "
Litvak from Budapest" (what's that?) who says that the
Leshem held that
Chabad was
megashem lofty concepts and that's why he didn't mention
Chabad, so why learn those
seforim at all? The
Leshem was totally opposed to
Toras HaChassidus from the
BeSHT on, שרק those that claim to follow his teachings are allowed to learn
Sifrei Chabad? שפת אמת? ר' צדוק? שם משמואל? And in
Chabad גופא - it's only the later
doros that were
meGashem? So תניא-ליקוטי תורה is still allowed? like where did it start? the
Tzemach Tzedek perhaps? Was he
meGashem? Litvak, you consider your self a rational person, is that what you believe? And what does to be
MeGashem mean anyway? Where do these people get these ideas, and why do sane, rational people follow them?! Just because he's a little out of the box and speaks of new concepts? II guess so. It seems to me that they've remained very much within the box of anti-
Chassidus, despite all the learning.
The answer is very
poshut. At least for me. [I was thinking of bringing R' Eli Weintraub into this discussion, because he was a similar person. He learned
Chabad and would even mention the source, but he too somehow "understood better."] To learn
Chassidus and be a
gantze mentsh far zich just doesn't exist.
Chassidus is
bittul. If you learn and internalize you become
bottul. You can teach but it's not about you. The examples are numerous. Too numerous to mention. The examples even go as far as people who do make it about them have a very hard time teaching
Chassidus, because it just won't "allow it." So people who become "
Gedolim" based on teaching מחשבה and becoming ענקי המחשבה - that doesn't jive with
Chassidus Chabad. So much so that they can't even mention
sifrei Chabad - almost as if the
seforim itself won't ALLOW themselves to be mentioned... Then there's a side issue I have with many of these same personalities, how they all somehow manage to hook up with the adversaries of
Chabad Shluchim and become those who put them on the map. Especially in places like the Former Soviet Union, וד"ל. But that's for another time. יש עוד הרבה מה להגיד.
יהי זכרו ברוך
