CS: “I encountered something along these lines when I was in eighth grade. I was a counselor together with anther girl who was the granddaughter of a Rebbe in EY. She was boasting to me how her grandfather the Rebbe had a fancy car and house.
…
She answered “it used to be like that, but now there’s been yeridas Hadoros…”
At that point I understood that when I say tzadik or Rebbe, and someone else does, were not speaking the same language.”
Sad story, but your conclusion is quite radical. There have always been charlatans and semi-charlatans. To decide because of one incident that you are speaking a different language to the rest of the world is ludicrous.
I have written in the past that I travel extensively, well a lot of that travel is to E”Y and there I have come in contact with many chassidic (non-chassidic too, but that’s not relevant here) groups and even a number of rebbes. Some, in my humble (!) opinion seem to be into it for the money/kovod/numbers, but there are others who are as far away from that as I am from becoming a rebbe.
Don’t fall into the trap of assuming that you are better because of the occasional statement or action of someone who is not as cluey or straight as you. It’s a well-known trick of the yetzer horo.