....החסיד מבין יותר טוב מהרבי

Hirshel: surely you read about Reb Yoel Kahan's visit to the Belzer Rebbe. And after the visit you must've been surprised to see - and even more so, to hear - that Reb Pinches Friedeman attended a farbrengen with Reb Yoel and spoke (in his Rebbe's name?) about Chabad and Tanya. Anybody who knows anything about Belz knows this are truly groundbreaking events. Belz speaking in praise of the Chabad Derech?! Belz was about Tor/Beis Yosef, not learning Chassidus. Anyway, what got me was how come R' Pinchas the chusid knows very well why Yud Tes Kislev is celebrated vs. all others arrests of other Rebbes like the Holy Ruzhiner, and his Rebbe plays dumb and asks Reb Yoel the difference? can a chusid know better then his Rebbe... the Ruzhiner was very holy,, but the question is shocking for a chuchem like the Belzer. As if he's asking why celebrate Yud Beis Tammuz and not celebrate Spinker Rebbe of BP's release????

For better pictures and a clearer view see here

Reb Yoel Kahan explains the Chassidic approach to "קנאות" and such

If only I'd speak Yiddish... Oh, well.

HaRav Reb Yoel Kahan shares a gleich vertel with the Rov of Kfar Chabad, Harav Mordechai Shmuel Ashkenazi, at the Yud Tes Kislev farbrengen in Kfar Chabad. בתיווך נראה הראשון לציון הרב ר' משה שלמה עמאר. The Rov is one who appreciates a good joke, I'm told.

"הפצת המעיינות" through the blog

An email I received a short while ago:

"I don't know if you remember, but a small investment on your part has reaped dividends in the last several weeks. Around two years ago, I expressed an interest in Chassidus to which you responded by giving me a whole package of paraphernalia, undoubtedly picked up in an undisclosed location. I gingerly opened the packet and I discovered several seforim along with discs for MP3. Me being a fartzaytishe guy I did not have an MP3 player, so I went straight to the traditional books. Much to my chagrin, the books were not up my alley, as they were filled with platitudinous one liners about Chabad being the pnimiyus, and all Misnagdim going to hell; or something to that effect, I don't remember the details - could be it was purgatory. Needless to say, my quest to discover the inner light of the Besh"t would continue, as I looked to other krayzen, spent a couple of days doing hisbodedus, tried out Rav Yitzchok Zilber, and even tried getting into Brisk - but nothing worked. That was until I finally got me a MP3 player, and I listened to over 100 shiruim during my monotonous driving over the last several weeks. You see, Reb Hirshel, you introduced me to the Tanya shiruim from Reb Yoel Kahan! Unbelievable, aza gevaltikeh bal masbir, with his inimitable Russian havurah, and (cigaretted) drag breaks to boot." עד כאן

These are some of the small things we accomplish. A fine בן תורה was made aware of תורת חסידות חב"ד through the blog. He might have otherwise never have known the geshmak of a perek Tanya or a parsha in Likutei Torah, and yes, Likutei Sichos as well. If only more of us would do that...Why do I brag here? simply because I often times get flack from Lubavitchers who tell me how I'm actually hurting "the cause" by writing. That may be the case sometimes, but the positives out weigh the negatives- I think. There are also countless email conversations and questions that I get and respond to, which you don't know about. All in all people see me as sensible and fair, even if we disagree. So I'd say that the opposite was true, that more often than not we accomplish good things.