"אוצר אגרות קודש" new edition
In the annals of Lubavitch history there's this group about whom the Satmar Rov was to have said "צו זיי זענען מלאכים ווייס איך נישט, אבער מענטשן זענען זיי זיכער נישט!" Those who have issues with Lubavitch like to point to this group and use them as proof that Lubavitch is not what the founders intended for it to be. Truth be told, the group only started many years after the "founder," R' Avrohom Ber Levin of Ilye left Russia and came to the US. Every boocher'l in the chassidishe velt knows that the Malochim don't like Lubavitch, and haven't liked them since the Rebbe Rashab told him to leave Lubavitch after he was מוציא לע"ז on his בן יחיד, רבינו מהריי"צ נ"ע. So in essence the group as a group was never really part of Lubavitch, Avrohom Ber not withstanding. But we won't be a stickler for accuracy here. What has become part of the Malochim philosophy - as I know it - is that REAL Chabad was only up until the Tzemach Tzedek. The MaHaRaSH is still OK as far as learning his Chassidus, but it's already not what the AR had in mind. Avrohom Ber considered himself on the level with the Rebbe Rashab, a "talmid-chover" as some would put it - silly people they are. They were the ones who took the liberty to laugh in the face of the Frierdige Rebbe, based on what they thought Reb Avrohom Ber would've said, I suppose, since they spent very little time with him before he passed on, and they opened the floodgates for any kal and so-called "Kanoi" to do the same. Then again, if they organized in 5684 then maybe he did really say some of those things? He only passed on in 5698. Word on the street is that most of his talmidim, like Reb Yankel Schorr, spent only 2 years with him, and it wasn't every day either, it was very seldom that they would meet him at all. Most of the meeting was done back in Brooklyn.
Over the years much has been learned about the above-named group and some of their positions. We know that he was a Rov in a Nusach Ari shul in the Bronx. Reb Yisroel Jacobson's father davened in his shul. In his zichronos RYJ writes that when he came to America in the early 20s((his family (parents and siblings) had emigrated before him)) he went to visit his parents and had to be in that shul. לכתחילה, he said, האב איך נישט געוואלט שטיין אין זיינע ד' אמות because of what transpired back in Lubavitch, but he had no choice. That goes to show you that not much has changed in Lubavitch in that respect - you mess with our Rebbes and we'll show you. I guess it was a small shul.... RYJ continues to reminisce how RABL asked him to chazzer a מאמר חסידות ביי זמן שלש סעודות from the Rebbe (Rayatz), which he gladly did, and Reb Avrohom Ber was duly impressed ------ So if he was SUCH a Kanoi, and sooooo disliked the RR and the FR I don't think he would ask to her what he considered diluted (ptuy) Chassidus, now would he? That was one anecdote that showed me that much of what his so-called chassidim and talmidim say about him is not mamesh so. But what we show here may be the kicker, being that it's from the "Malochim" themselves, and kind of throws a really big monkey wrench into the idea that he didn't care for Lubavitch post 4G. NOT THAT IT REALLY MATTERS, but it does to some people. Somebody who was so anti-Lubavitch post 4G wouldn't make his bochurim collect money for Tomchei Tmimim, a T"T being run by the Frierdige Rebbe, now would he? And he wouldn't be so adamant about it as he is here, would he?! This was 4 years after the RR had passed away already!!
