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True kenoim who know what Chabad stands for do not use their services or interact with them. Jews traveled for business and other purposes for literally thousands of years without Chabad, up until beginning around 40 years ago. People who hold fast to their values and know what they stand for are not afraid of being inconvenienced as a result.
This is anyway not a real argument, as two hours of research will prove the simple fact they are bchezkas minim until they explicitly reject their movement’s theology.Give it up already. This “why are my sons dying while yours are safe” is a totally emotional argument which holds no water.
The reality is that the Bnei Torah sitting in learning are being mezakeh the soldiers כל שעה ושעה. That is their tafkid. Just because it does not involve danger of death does not mean it is less useful or that they are not “sharing the burden”. That phrase is nothing but a leftist talking point, I’m sorry to say. The Bnei Torah are the Shevet Levy of our time, and Shevet Levy was not required to serve in the Jewish army. Mind you, the IDF does not have the halachic status of a Jewish army, and this war does not have the status of a milchemes mitzvah. This is the position of the Gedolei Hador (as smart and pious as some Religious Zionist rabbonim may be, none have the actual status of Gedolei Hador, which would give them far, far, far much more halachic power than they have now).
Furthermore, the reason is not necessarily shmad. It is a problem of weakening the chareidi way of life and giving into non-chareidi pressure. We will not abandon our holy way of life to join the IDF. They do not need us, and they will not have us. End of story.“Chabad used to be about disseminating Chassidic teachings which the Baal HaTanya wrote, saying his Divrei Torah, etc. In America, Chabad started out with Shlichim going out and bringing the masses back to Judaism. These are goals which we share and do not contest.
But present-day Chabad has nothing to do with the above. Present-day Chabad has become a personal cult centered on the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe. Everything they do from beginning to end, revolves around this. They constantly project his image, talk about him and how great he was, how smart he was, how he was a better strategist than all the generals, that he was Mashiach. etc. This is the way people talk about a cult figure. There’s no room in Yiddeshkeit for a personality cult in which an individual is deified and glorified. Whether he was great or wasn’t great is immaterial. There have been many great people in Judaism. The personality cult of glorifying an individual person, giving him unique titles, elevating the shape of the building he was active in. etc., has no place in Yiddishkeit.”
בברכת מז”ט מז”ט
ושתה’ בשעה טובה ומוצלחתI agree that in some cases it’s becoming a little too close for comfort, but it is unfair to pigeonhole Chabad based on the Rashab’s shita–after the hakomas hamedina, things changed (of course though, both the Rayatz and the Rebbe maintained that the hakoma itself was a rishus and that concepts such as the idea that the State is the “aschalta d’geula” are kefira).
Plenty of Lubavitchers join the army, and this has been going on for a very long time. I can’t speak to the social attitudes of the community from decades past (I wasn’t here), but certainly the Rebbe didn’t feel that they were freiacks…