Wikipedia article on Rav Belsky is vandalized -- blanked out and replaced with "stupid snag" in response to his (correct) comments on Lubavitch. I've never heard this term before. It is apparently a shorthand for "misnagid." Oy. And see the comments here. (As I said in a previous post, the personality cult is a problem in chassidus, not specifically Lubavitch, but they as a group take it to an extreme.) And it occurs in those comments as well. Such as:
"Who cares what a snag rav said to Mishpacha? Laugh at him and keep on going."
Here is a comment which illustrates the personality cult problem:
"they can not stand the fact that we look at the rebbe as the only true godol, and at most we respect others for their learning (but none even comes close to the rebbe)."
and another astounding comment:
Rabbi Belsky is an undisputed Gadol, Yirat Shamayim, and Torah Giant. Nevertheless, some of his remarks constitute a Chillul Hashem, and he should be repudiated for insulting the honor of the Rebbe's followers.
The Rebbe is an open Tzaddik and true Torah leader, that brought about a giant Torah revolution that did not end after Gimmel Tammuz.
Rabbi Belsky spoke disrespectfully about Lubavitcher chassidim for glorifying him, that Rashi says is like honoring Hashem. Its written explicitly in Chumash. To proclaim that this treastment of the Rebbe is wrong, or should be stopped or minimized, is not in accordance with the Torah. Rabbi Belsky should do teshuva.
I no longer can rely upon his kashrus.
And the crazies are all coming out.
parshiot
parshablog
-- email me: joshwaxman@yahoo.com
6 comments:
"I no longer can rely upon his kashrus."
now that is an ironic statement, considering that some won't rely upon a chabad hashgacha
It's ironic in historical perspective: when the Chassidim insitituted "Chassidishe shechita," such shechita was banned as treife. The Chassidim, for their part, placed a ban on meat which had not been slaughtered the new Chassidishe way - as trefe.
Looks like we're going full circle.
and there's also his comments about modern Orthodoxy... but i guess most MO people have probably never heard of Mishpacha, much less read it.
If you think he's correct then you don't know Lubavitch, you only THINK you do. You don't know me, that's forsure, and I am the furthst thing away from what he describes to be "modern day chabad", in fact none of my friends of family is anything like he thinks we are. This is pure Sonei Chabad. Same attacks, different decade.
Chaim:
As I wrote in an earlier post:
"I agree with Rav Belsky that 'present-day Chabad has become a personality cult centered on the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe.' The fact that other chassidim do it as well, only less so, is not a defense. Indeed, the chassidic Rebbe-centric approach was one of the reasons the Vilna Gaon opposed it. That Chabad now takes it to an even greater extreme is perhaps predictable."
And there certainly appears to be truth to that statement, even from your own post of the subject, which I read before posting any of this. E.g. you write "The Rebbe is with us spiritually and we use his love, his wisdom, his Torah and his words to guide us every day. Maybe Rav Belsky wants us to just get over it already and file the Rebbe away somewhere in a history museum. That is not how we act, that is not how Chassidus works, and I thought that wasn't how Yiddishkeit worked." This is *exactly* a personality cult.
This may certainly be *cast* in the framework of Rebbe/tzaddik-centered Judaism, but I think that firstly this approach is wrong, and further that even within this approach, this takes it over the top. The meshichists are *possibly* just a symptom of the underlying problem, which is this improper general focus. And the comments I cited from CrownHeights.info, and other comments I did not cite, convince me further of this.
Kol Tuv,
Josh
To Lion of Zion
The OU relies heavily on Chabad for their kashrus work. So maybe you should not rely on the OU anymore for their hashgacha.
Maybe the Chabadskers point is that even if there is an issue the way that the Rabbi addressed it was incorrect.
Bsuros Tovos
Joel
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