back to the sukkah, I think there are legitimate reasons to consider this whole dor istanis, given our lifestyle. We also have different attitudes towards dwellings – we do not have dirt floors, people travelling for work sleep in separate rooms instead of the inn bar, etc. Add to that Ashkenazi habit of not sleeping in the sukkah for hundreds of years due to weather and even if NY is slightly warmer than Lyadi, the danger outside (where the honest people are behind bars) compensates. We all know that it is easier to accept a new explanation to a minhag than to change the minhag! You would not be wearing Polish clothes otherwise. So, there is some support to Lubavicher sensitivity to people’s sensitivities.
Even if you look at classical examples of instanis from a quick Google. I am 4 out of 6, and I know those who are 6 out of 6 🙂 What are you?
1. walking in non-leather shoes on 9AV [Rabbi Shlomo Oiyrbach allows because nowadays we all “istanis” (הליכות שלמה ה, טז-יז).]
2. someone who is disgusted by drinking from a cup where someone else drank (Tamid 27b)
3. someone too delicate to work (Sotah 11a)
4. someone too delicate to bathe in cold water (Yoma 31b and Yoma 34b)
5. an overly sensitive person whose days are made worse from constantly encountering unpleasant situations (Sanhedrin 100b and Bava Batra 145b)
6. requiring a daily bath (Berachot 16b)