I love it how people are saying it is hypocritical to criticize Chabad but to eat their stuff when you travel. No. That’s not how it works. Just because someone does one nice thing that doesn’t mean you get to get a free pass on something else that is wrong. The problem I have with Chabad is that you look at yourselves as the chosen people within the Chosen People, which is within your rights to do so but it’s just very delusional. Chabad is small compared to other chassidusin plus they had a lot of gedoilim not supporting some things that they did. Satmar and Ger are much bigger and they don’t pretend that their mehalech is the only one…
Also Chabad tolerates even the worst ppl just because they were born Jews. People like Lapid who our gedoilim (like Rav Shteinman ZATZAL) have said Lapid yemach shemo but if you speak like to a lubavitcher he’ll say how DARE you say that on another Jew…
Tolerating evil is tantamount to supporting it, and by refusing to declare the left-wing liberal secular Jews (both here and in EY) as enemies of Klal Yisroel, Chabad has lost its credibility IMO. It’s like bringing in the Trojan horse that opens the door for our enemies to damage us Chas V’Shalom.
Also if you really think Moshiach does not necessarily have to come from the living, why is it not the Baal Shem Tov? Or the Rambam?
Chabad changed so much after gimmel Tammuz… Just look at the matzav of tznius in Crown Heights these days! It’s mamash shocking even to people who grew up there and moved to other Chabad communities (I heard this from a cousin of mine who grew up there).
Credit is due that Chabad did help out to save Russian Jews stay frum and they will obviously get a lot of schar for all that work. But it does not cancel out some other crazy stuff that goes on