I’m quite busy these days, but just decided to take a peek and look through this thread. Unsurprisingly, I found nothing new. Same haters expressing their hate and loyalists expressing their loyalty.
Just some thoughts on some factual claims that I noticed:
Avira,
“What about rav eliezer silver rescuing orphans from a christian compound after the Holocaust”
Funny you mentioned this. This story is recounted countless times in Chabad Houses, it comes out of my ears.
ARSo,
What you don’t realise is that for many of us, what constitutes “kol minei nevoloh” is far different to what you consider it. I’ll give you two examples. Amongst other chassidim, chassanim meeting their kallos after the engagement is non-existent or at the very least kept to a VERY bare minimum. In Lubavich it is unfortunately common practice. In Lubavich bochurim eating at the same table as non-related girls is acceptable. Not in other chatzeiros.
I was honestly wondering what you meant by “mixing of genders” in Crown Heights, which I have never seen. Thanks for giving more specific examples.
I have never seen bochurim eating at the same table as non-related girls. Bochurim would not go to a friend’s house for Shabbos or for a meal if they have sisters in their age group at home.
During the engagement (which is usually about 2 months), chosson and kalla usually meet once every 2-3 weeks (so about 4 times during engagement), the less the better. However, the Rebbe encouraged the chosson and kallah to stay be in different cities for the duration of the engagement, so, depending on the distance, the meetings are sometimes less frequent.
Even the ones who can rattle off sichos keep to these very low standards, and virtually all (that I know of – you can correct me here if I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am) have smartphones which they access even in shule.
Until about 21, pretty much all the chassidishe bochurim don’t have. Closer to marriage it does become more common (with strong filters obviously).
Are we meant to “act on”, say, kemitzah, or on the planetary system the Rambam writes in his halachos?
I don’t want to get into the whole Moshiach question, but it seems that CS was saying that the Rambam isn’t just giving us nice information on Jewish concepts, rather he is giving practical instructions for identifying Moshiach.
ARSo seems to be countering that we find other parts of Rambam which are clearly just informative but not meant to be practical halacha.
ARSo, correct me if I understood your point wrong, but your examples seem to hold very little water:
Of course kemitza is meant to be acted upon, when we have a Beis Hamikdash.
The planetary system is also meant to act upon, by:
1) Using it to contemplate Hashem’s greatness, thus fulfilling the mitzvos of ahavas Hashem and yiras Hashem (which is why he brings it in הל’ יסוה”ת. See פ”ב ה”ב, פ”ד הי”ב)
2) Beis Din using it to test the עדי ראיה for rosh chodesh (which is why he brings it in הל’ קידוש החודש. See פ”א ה”ז, ספי”ט).
P.S. Again, I’m not getting into the argument whether the Rambam’s Moshiach qualifications apply in this case, rather the general discussion if the Rambam meant his sefer to be practical halacha (as he write in his hakdama) or general information.
Gosh, until you reverted to the beloved “haters” statement I actually valued your perspective and saw you as above the PR stuff. What a let down.