על דאטפת אטפוך - Poetic Justice!

My dear friends;

I'm sorry for doing this, for airing our "dirty laundry" here in public, and in English yet! but this charade has to stop. This week's meeting with the Satmar Rebbe is only one example of the exclusionary tactics being used by the organizers of the Internet event on כ"ח אייר, הבעל"ט. You can choose not to believe what I write here, if it makes you feel good, but I know it to be 1000% true. Many efforts were made to get the organizers to include Lubavitch in this asifa. They were all rejected. For all kinds of supposed reasons. All people involved got the run-around, and the end result was that we got the message. Even the Skulener Rebbe said it has nothing to do with him;  "איך בין אן אלטער איד און מען שלעפט מיר ארום". Those were his words. Even supposed friends of Lubavitch that are involved could do nothing. Lubavitch was not wanted here. Apparently some of the organizers, or do we say "THE" organizer from Gateshead/Lakewood, thinks that it's his klal yisroel and he decides who's in and who's not. And this week they made it perfectly clear to the Satmar Rebbe of KJ that they don't want Lubavitch there. That they're not part of Klal Yisroel, to paraphrase R' Malkiel Kotler. This is a kinus for part of klal yisroel, not klal yisroel. Not even all of the Ultra-Orthodox.

In case I wasn't clear enough, here's what happened:

A delegation that included the Skulener Rebbe, one of his sons, R' Matisyahu Salomon, R' Malkiel Kotler and the Viener Rov/Rebbe of Williamsburg went to the see the Satmar Rebbe of KJ this week. I think it was Monday night. They went there to convince him to sign on to the big Internet gathering. They need him, because if he doesn't sign on then his people won't go, and that means thousands of empty seats at Citifield. (which is normal there, from what I understand...) He doesn't want to go or send his people because he deals with the issue in his own way, he doesn't need some darshan for ladies (no offense) tell him what he should do to keep his kids safe. And most of all, if he doesn't call the gathering, he's not going. He doesn't play second fiddle to nobody. So he comes up with a lame excuse about 1866 Hungary, which everybody knows he doesn't believe, but they can't tell him that, because, you know, it isn't respectful. But how does he make that point? He asks them why one segment of klal yisroel, several thousand Jews with black hats, Lubavitch, namely, why they're not invited, why they haven't been asked to sign on to the kol korehs and get their students and fathers to come? So supposedly RMK said something like "they're not part of Klal Yisroel; that even though you daven in Chabad in Palm Springs I would rather daven B'Yechidus if I was in that situation."  So the SR used that to tell them, that just like he does that because he has a mesorah from his zeide and from the late Ponovizher Rosh Yeshivah, so too does he have a mesorah from his zeides.  And his mesorah goes back to 1866 Hungary, not 1946 Brooklyn. (could we have expected him to stand up and condemn that statement?...) And this is what we call "poetic justice." You Litvaks thought you were the ultimate guardians of Jewry? the Satmar Rebbe turned the tables on you and told you what he really thinks of your clean-shaven, sheitel wearing, Agudah-voting sorry selves.

I know, I know, it's Chabad's fault. They isolated themselves. Whatever.


And they're wondering if they should attend...

And they speak about Achdus?!

........מחרימים עדה קדושה

אלע, אלע, אלע

Jury still out on Yoeli Roth

I very much relate to the very encouraging yet simple message: Lo LeHisya'esh, despite the fact that slogans like that are not mamesh in the Chabad spirit, or so I'm told - but that's beside the point. It seems like he's having an effect on them; I doubt these would be singing "Ich vil zahn an erlicher Yid" out loud was it not for Yoeli. אודה ולא אבוש, I stick to the general consensus when it comes to Shick of Breslov, and the fact that Yoeli's message is so closely tied into Shick is troubling to me. (As a matter of fact, it seems like all Shick has here in NY - other than the 2 guys who distribute his kuntreysim on the streets of Brooklyn - is Yoeli's bachurim!) Well, maybe not troubling, but makes me doubtful as to whether what he's doing is the right thing. Then there's the שמועות that kids he had in his Yeshivah are frei'ing out and that he's having the opposite effect of what he should be having on them. I take that accusation in stride, not knowing the cases and where those kids were up to when he took them in. He seems like a very angry young man at times, and the curled nose you see in the shmuessen videos is proof positive. So if his goal is to be mekarev these bochurim why is getting them to go to Shick so important to him? We wanna know, and until then we will not reach a verdict. There are lots of videos out there, we humbly suggest that you look for them and decide for yourself.

On another note: The guitar. what's with the guitar?! why is that the instrument of choice for all the Kumzitzers and at-risk kids doers?! Every singer worth his salt has decided that he needs to play the guitar, and without it he's incomplete. The Stutchiner Rebbe (Yudkowski) can be seen on the web playing a guitar and singing Carlebach to kids at risk. Is that the only way to reach these kids - or anybody, for that matter? And where is the outrage concerning Shlomo that was around not so long ago? My, how times have changed. Why, only 28 years ago Reb Mendel Wechter was beaten inches from death for learning Chassidus with bochurim. Today Roth is telling them to say mishnayos and become kabtzonim and he very defiantly puts his speeches on the internet for all to see... Have we lost the war aginst those that prey on young, innocent children who know not better than to be taken for a ride by cult leaders who use these people like Kleenex, and throw them in the trashbin once done with them?! O' how we miss the days of old.

It's seems like it's catching on, even among those already out of Yeshivah and not necessarily YR's talmidim...