Reply To: Clarification to mod and DaMoshe

Cont’

This approach also enables us to help others much more because we’re not in the mode of retreating. The maamar of the Alter Rebbe on שחורה אני ונאוה is very illuminating in this regard. Of course we may stay more pristine by cutting ourselves off from the world as much as possible, but so would our Neshama by staying up above. The beauty is the willingness to descend and become blackened to an extent, and in the end, with the right intentions, we end up reaching much farther than we would have, מאיר עיני שניהם ה׳.

There’s also the horaah from the Halacha regarding salting chickens- they can be placed atop another because they’re all giving out and won’t take in blood. So too with us- if we’re busy trying to influence others positively, we won’t be in danger of being influenced negatively.

I’ll continue in a part 2.

Part2:
Of course there’s bechira chofshis- the Rebbe sent out shluchim with the promise that their children’s chinuch will be on his shoulders. One shlucha wasn’t happy with how her son turned out and wrote an angry letter to the Rebbe. The response was that the Rebbe never asked her to put such magazines in her bathrooms…

(But yes generally, shluchim do have a special brocha with their children.)

So in summary: our approach takes exposure as a matter of course (more limited when children but when necessary for hafatza etc…) but in the way of being mashpia, and also enables everyone to be honest with themselves and to connect to their role models openly.

Other paths that segregate seem to have the advantage of less exposure =less challenges = better results.

Ultimately, the only time we saw a fair comparison was by Soviet Russia, where lubavitch, although affected, “won” by far (unfortunately.)