PLEASE USE A NAME WHEN COMMENTING

03 March 2024

Rabbi David bar-Chayim & Yehonatan in Conversation

Jonathan Pollard and Rabbi David Bar-Hayim: Different Types of Jews




Chabad, Christianity and Hassidic Groups


Some commentary (pro & con):

The approach to avoda Zara goes way beyond Chabad and has afflicted almost all of Orthodoxy with destructive ideas like Daas Torah, the cult of the gedolim as well as yeridas HaDoros and the emphasis on yichus as well as centralised rabbinates and the orgies of chumras everywhere.

Awful to generalize like this. I know Chabad very very well and you are simply wrong. Perhaps the Lubavitch movement in Israel is different. I don't know, but in Chutz L'aretz, only a small minority are truly Meshichist, as far as I can tell. We need unity now, not awful bad mouthing each other.

I have been recently following this podcast for mostly political content but ths shiur is dismaying - to brandish chabad as akin to christiantity is simply false - the proof is in the fact that chabad adherents are observing torah and mitzvot and are bringing people closer to hashem - vayameinu bahashem uvemoshe avdo is as old as the torah - yes there are extreme elements but this in no way justfies the wholesale brandishing of this group.

It would be more interesting if the Rabbi had a good grasp of his own theory enough to point at the interesting period of Frankism/Misnagdism/Hasidism and offer a comprehensive working model for how to understand Hasidism.

With all due respect Rabbi this is simply not true! The Rebbe was just that a Rebbe, and anyone who proposes otherwise is looked at within chabad circles as at least extremist. Lehavdil to compare to Xianity. As a Rabbi yourself you may have students who revere you but that does not change your status. The Rebbe was the seventh in a chassidic dynasty and if anything he wanted NOT to be the Rebbe. I think you are misrepresenting the majority by using the few as the example. What chabad is doing globally speaks for itself and for the leader of the movement, not the lunatics who tried to dig under 770. They do not represent the movement. Not at all. Shavua Tov.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Agree with the author here. Also believe that the Rabbi is not portraying the Lubavitcher chasidim properly. All the chasidic sects revere their Rebbes, almost worship like, but not
c,v to the extent of a diety, c'v. When the Chasidic movements started in the 1700's, the masses were very poor and uneducated and the chasidic movement was very beneficial for these Jews who might have been lost altogether if it wasn't for the movement teaching them some Torah and bringing them to Yiddishkeit through joy & simcha. While the Lithuanian Jews were talmudists and quite learned but they also revered (not in a worship way) such as the Gaon of Vilna. What it comes down to is Torah is what keeps and kept our people alive; but the dim poverty stricken lives of the Jews in Europe was very severe and learning was a luxury for most and Chasidism brought the Jews back somewhat. They deserve great credit for that.
All this in no way compares, c'v, to notzriut. That avoda zorah started because of the groups
of Jews who decided they don't need the full Torah, just the written because that was documented and if they could get away with not observing the Oral Laws was the easy way out.
In other words, they must have had the neshamot of the erev rav that left Mitzrayim and again causing evil for our people once again. They had a renegade 'jew' leading the way and that's how that started. To compare, c'v, the chabad or other chasidic dynasties is very wrong
and untrue. In fact, many of the rebbes of the dynasties are of the Davidic lineage.
Extremisim in Yahadut is a sin and whether chasidic or yeshivish, it leads to NO-good.
Afraid that only with the coming of Moshiach tzdkeinu will we have true unity, the second time
since Matan Torah, but this time, the unity will be forever and we will be one people, one
Torah worshipping only Hashem, Master of the Universe, in our holy Eretz Yisrael.


.

drbsd said...

Agree 100%. I like Rab Bar Chaim and I’m not chabadnick . Chabad it’s an extraordinary sector of the Jewish society and the Rebe zl was a Gadol a Dor. His followers, most of them see him as a Rebe. Frankly I love chabad and my chabadnick brothers and sisters

CHANUKAH SAMAEYACH

TO ALL FRIENDS OF ERETZ YISRAEL  Neis Gadol Hayaha POH