My last post got me thinking so much that I can’t sleep. My fault for causing it myself.
Anyhow, after what I wrote in reply to chossid (and it doesn’t seem to have shown up in the thread yet) I was thinking again about what he wrote that we search for things to find wrong with Lubavcih, and how I replied that its actually that their propaganda machine rams it down our throats. A whole lot of other examples that rile me came to mind, so if I can’t sleep I may as well tell you about them and allow chossid, username, CS et al to respond.
As I’ve said so many times, I have nothing against you being different to others – each group is different in its own way – but why is it that you always have to show how different you are?
1. Why do I, an obvious non-lubavicher to anyone who just looks at me, have to be told every time I see a lubavicher on 19 Kislev “Leshono toivo bedarkei hachassidus” or whatever the exact lashon is? I don’t believe it is Rosh Hashono, no one outside of lubavich does, so why do I have to be “accosted” with that greeting by people who never even nod their heads to me when they pass me at any other time of the year, and who never say Gut Shabbos or Gut Yom Tov? (I have to mention in passing that I consider this R”H another meaningless lubavich meshigass made up relatively recently, but that’s not the point of what I’m posting now.)
2. Why does every lubavicher who passes me on Shavuos (again those who just walk right past me any other time of the year) have to make a point of saying to me “Kabbolas Hatorah bepnimiyus”? If it’s not just to show me how different/better they are, then what’s the point? I sometimes wonder whether the rule is to only say it to non-lubavichers, and that in the local chabad shules they just say “Gut Yom Tov” to each other like everyone else.
3. Why does it so often happen (not all the time, but far too often) that when saying kaddish in an Ashkenaz minyan a lubavicher will insist on saying Veyatzmach etc, and when people get upset about it the lubavicher just laughs it off? I also say Veyatzmach etc in kaddish, but when I’m davening in an Ashkenaz minyan I omit it because of minhag hamokom. I have seen many people who daven Ashkenaz say Veyatzmach etc when davening in our shul or in the local chabad shul, but ask a lubavicher to omit it and you will so often get nowhere.
4. Why can’t lubavichers accept that in many places, and our shule is just one such place, we finish davening with kaddish after Aleinu, with no further kaddish? Do they absolutely have to make an issue of saying Tehillim and then Kaddish Yasom and Kaddish Derabbonon? And again, if it upsets people, all the better.
5. Why can’t lubavichers davening elsewhere either do hagbah the way it is done in that place, or at the very least kindly explain that they would rather not do hagbah at all as they do it differently to the minhag hamokom? Is it really important for them to somehow maneuver past the person standing there waiting to do gelilah so that they can davka put the sefer back down on the bimah despite it upsetting the regular mispalelim?
And you want to know why we SEARCH for things to badmouth lubavich about! Again, the above examples are not the case with every lubavicher, but I am not the only one who has seen these cases happen more than once. And I didn’t even mention the times when people announce Yechi etc loudly after davening in other shuls. That is much less frequent, but it happens.
Hopefully going to sleep now, but I look forward to some reasoned responses.