40th Siyum Harambam This Sunday!!!

Dear Avira: You asked, “Can anyone explain to me the rationale of learning ‘rambam yomi’?”
Let me go to divrei HaRav, paraphrased and reworked by me. The Rebbe suggested that Yidden everywhere learn the same shtikel Rambam on the same day for several reasons.
The Rambam Yomi promotes achdus and ahavas Yisrael because everyone is learning the same thing no matter what their situation is. Pirud caused churban HaBayis and golus. A remedy is unity and ahavas chinam by learning the same thing. Furthermore, it promotes pilpul which brings people together — a meeting of the minds.
Why the Yad? In his Hakdama the Rambam explains that he has gathered “halachos, halachos” which bring together “the entire Torah Sheb’al Peh.”
If anyone has a ta’anah it’s with this brazen statement of the Rambam. I wonder how many B’nei Torah have read the Hakdama? It’s part of the Rambam Yomi, though.
A primary advantage of the Yad is “mitzvas limud v’yedias haTorah kulah.” The Rebbe cites the Rav’s Shulchan Aruch where this is the p’sak halachah. Incidently, to this end, some people would say the names of the Taryag Mitzvos every day. These names are featured prominently in the Yad.
One feature of Mitzvas Talmud Torah is to learn halacha l’ma’aseh as you pointed out. Another is to know the entire Torah. To this end, a special feature of the Yad is to learn halachos that are not for our time and place — something that you won’t find in other poskim.
For those who are shayach, it’s suggested that they learn one halacha b’iyun.
This is a thumbnail sketch from several pages. I pray that I’ve done justice to divrei HaRav.
I have a particular request of you to stay on the topic. Please.

“I’ve been told there are no kashrus agencies that avoid lubavitcher shochtim.”

I know of at least one that asks the chabad shochtim if they believe the rebbe is moshiach and will not allow his shechita if he says yes. That has no bearing, tho, on other kashrus matters.

I actually have zero years of coffee room experience under my belt; late night talks in a dormitory…. that’s another story. Of that I have plenty.

Re, eating meat from chabad shochtim – Rav Belsky zt”l told me years ago that the OU checks out every lubavitcher shochet for the very real percentage of “boreinu-niks”, people who say yechi but add in boreinu, rachmana litzlan. I hope this is still the case 5 years after his petirah.

I am not versed in chabad seforim aside from tanya, but I have read the sicha regarding “atzmus elokuso, vos ehr hut areingeshtelt in a guf”. I’m knowledgeable enough in chassidishe seforim to know what atzmus elokus means, and I’m knowledgeable enough in yiddish to know what the latter part spells out – we’re not talking implication, this is straight out saying that one may pray to a tzadik because he is thereby praying to god. Was he referring to a pantheistic idea that everything has god in it so when you pray to, say a stone, you are praying to the godliness in the stone? That is something ovdei avoda zara believe; it’s also the better alternative to the plain corporealism-oriented meaning of the words, a christian man-god ideology.

Whether the rebbe was overcome with some sort of ruach ra’ah or condition that made that come out of him, or other forms of limud zchus…. again, I am not here nor do I care to inspect the rebbe’s own character or level, or anything else.

This is among the very few things that make one a practitioner of a different religion altogether.

During the international conference of shluchim a few years ago, moshe kotlarsky, head of chinuch in chabad remarked “may the Rebbe look upon our gathering favorably, his presence is here with us now and may he grant our requests”

This is the man who regulates merkaz leinyonei chinuch. He oversees the education of tens and thousands of jewish children.

He believes – with the silent approval lf 50,000 shluchim – that we should earn the lubavitcher rebbe’s favor and that he should accept our requests.

That is indefensible. That is chabad in our time.