Menachem Shmei

From AskTheRav (Chabad):

Halachically one may smoke on fast days. On Tisha B’av one should not smoke. However if one is unfortunately addicted and it is very difficult for him to refrain, he may smoke after Chatzos and in privacy.

משנ”ב סי’ תקנ”ה ס”ק ח וכ”כ בקישו”ע קכד, יד. והעולם נהגו להקל כהאחרונים שהביא שם, וכמה פוסקים התירו אף בליל תשעה באב למי שקשה לו – סידור יעבץ. דע”ת סי’ תקנט. א”א מבוטשאטש סי’ תקסז. מחנה חיים ח”ג סי’ מא. וראה הביאור בזה בזכר יהוסף סי’ קצח ובארוכה ביבי”א ח”א סי’ לג.

This is all aside for the general issues with smoking.

Several months ago, I decided not to vote because Trump seemed unhinged and angry at the entire world (including Israel), and Biden also wasn’t too pro-Israel.

However, recent events have changed my mind. Harris is clearly dangerously anti-Israel and Trump seems much more moderate and pro-Israel then he did last year, so now I will definitely vote for him.

Qwerty,

You keep mocking how I ran away from questions.

I literally answered dozens of your posts, and the thread you mentioned continued until it was closed by the moderator because of YOUR posts.

Your posts now continue to be filled with absolute nonsense and hate speech, denouncing entire groups of Jews as heretics and liars.

You come up with the most ridiculous taanos (shoes at the ohel, etc.). I’m honestly surprised that the other non Lubavitchers on this thread don’t try to distance themselves from you.

I have stopped answering your bogus arguments because
א קאפ קען מען ניט ארויפשטעלן

Now you can go ahead and write “checkmate” for the umpteenth time. The equivalent of a child who covers his ears screaming “blah blah blah, I won, I won!”

Sam,

As others have pointed out, while from the drowning Egyptians it would seem improper to celebrate, there other Gemaros that imply otherwise, so stop spitting out blanket issurim.

Here is the Gemara that Pekak referred to:
Megilla 16a:
אֲמַר לֵיהּ: סַק וּרְכֹב. אֲמַר לֵיהּ: לָא יָכֵילְנָא, דִּכְחִישָׁא חֵילַאי מִימֵי תַּעֲנִיתָא. גְּחֵין וּסְלֵיק. כִּי סָלֵיק, בְּעַט בֵּיהּ. אֲמַר לֵיהּ: לָא כְּתִיב לְכוּ: ״בִּנְפֹל אוֹיִבְךָ אַל תִּשְׂמָח״? אֲמַר לֵיהּ: הָנֵי מִילֵּי בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל, אֲבָל בְּדִידְכוּ כְּתִיב: ״וְאַתָּה עַל בָּמוֹתֵימוֹ תִדְרוֹךְ״.

Haman then said to him: Mount the horse and ride. Mordecai said to him: I am unable, as my strength has waned from the days of fasting that I observed. Haman then stooped down before him and Mordecai ascended on him. As he was ascending the horse, Mordecai gave Haman a kick. Haman said to him: Is it not written for you: “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls” (Proverbs 24:17)? Mordecai said to him: This statement applies only to Jews, but with regard to you it is written: “And you shall tread upon their high places” ( Deuteronomy 33:29).

Without a rebbe, chabad continues to fall into disarray even in its basic rabbinic functions. Recently, a bunch of rabbis broke off from the Crown Heights Beis Din and made their own kashrus agency, which now certifies Shor Habor, a meat company which i anyways avoided due to the possibility of god-in-a-body worshippers doing the shechitah.

What do politics involving a Badatz have anything to do with the Rebbe? The Rebbe never ran the Crown Heights Beis Din!

Even before gimmel Tammuz there were incidents of politics between Chabad mosdos, and the Rebbe refused to get involved in the nitty gritty fighting because he said it’s not his job. A Rebbe isn’t a rosh hakahal who gets involved in people’s arguments. That’s what a din torah is for.

Are there no other kashrus politics or controversies happening right now besides for in Lubavitch!?

Are there no controversies or politics in any other Jewish communities which HAVE “living rebbes/rabbanim”!?

That’s not the reaction I get when I get accosted by Lubavichers who try to prove to me that the LR is Mashiach, and I’m not talking about infrequent cases.

ARSo, I’m very curious. How exactly does this play out?

Like you’re on the subway or in shul or walking down the street, and a Lubavitcher bochur/yungerman/woman/child approaches you, strikes up conversation, and says: “By the way, I assume you know that the Lubavitcher Rebbe is Moshiach, because the Rambam says….”

Is that what happens?

Or are you the one who usually brings it up, asking a Lubavitcher, “Are you one of those guys who believe that the Rebbe is Moshiach? Why? What’s your proof?”

Because while I’ve seen the latter take place COUNTLESS times, I have never witnessed the former take place (and I’ve participated in MANY “hafatza” missions to non-Lubavitch shuls and yeshivos), and I wonder how common it really is in the last 20 years or so.

The issue with the OP is that he’s jumping into a huge ocean of arguments between gedolei yisroel that went on for a LONG time, and picking all of the arguments of one of the sides and showing how obvious it is that they are correct.

My favorite line which demonstrates this point:
Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan [ZTL, ZYA] wrote….
This also refutes The Three Oaths.
Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan was a GENIUS, and his words should be listened to.

Aha, so we have all of these interesting arguments, but because “the genius of all time” implies a refutation of the three oaths, this must be the final ruling.

Avoiding the issue because she knows that Habadpedia is lying, and (being a Lubavicher) she can’t admit that a quasi-official Lubavich website would lie.

Just gonna jump in quickly to clear up some completely misconstrued facts:

Chabadpedia is in no way a quasi-official Lubavitch website. It is FULL of mistakes and inaccuracies.
It has the same level of credibility as ANY wikipedia page.

Arso, if you want, YOU YOURSELF can write things on chabadpedia and you will not be stopped! I have corrected mistakes every now and then and no qualifications were needed. I just pressed “edit” and made the changes.

[I wasn’t following the conversation so I have no idea which Chabadpedia page you’re referring to, but I just wanted to put the reality out there]

I loved the YWN headline:

“HaGaon HaRav Landau: “Whoever doesn’t want to vote shouldn’t put on Tefillin””

One of the best headlines yet!

P.S. There is a great video of Rav Landau (from an earlier election?) where some askanim try to convince him to endorse the election, and he sternly sends them away with strong ridicule.

mod,

Sorry for the let down. I’m actually impressed with myself that I managed to fool you for so long! 😃

P.S. As an aside, I hope you noticed that I didn’t use the idea of “defenders” any less mockingly then I used the idea of “attackers”…
There is a vort that’s said in the name of a great tzaddik who lived before the times of the Baal Shem Tov who was involved in heavy machlokes with another great tzaddik (I won’t say his name because I’m not sure if I’m quoting it correctly, but the point is definitely true in many cases): ‘Only on the first day our machlokes was לשם שמים, from after that it was personal’.
I think this is definitely true in this machlokes. (–This is in response to the mod’s statement about “pretending it isn’t okay for people to defend Torah values”…)

Mod, “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.”

I should have said “same opponents expressing their opposition and defenders expressing their defense.”

My point was that we pretty much know that some people here take strong issue with Lubavitch and they will probably continue their attacks no matter what, and others here are Lubavitchers (myself included), and they will probably continue their defense no matter what.

attacks, hate, different versions of the same PR point. Pretending it isn’t okay for people to defend Torah values, on both “sides of the aisle”  is a PR stunt. 

What a let down
Nothing new from what has been going on in hundreds of pages of CR threads of rehashing this topic.

ARSo,

Menachem, welcome back!

Thank you! Busy times, not sure how long often I can pop in.

Regarding your points in response to my post, I guess we see different circles in Chabad.

Now why would the LR stop someone identifying in a manner which would allow him to feel the part fully. The answer that I was given is, as I wrote, to attract others to Lubavich.

The idea of changing levush is a bit more complicated. There were some whom the Rebbe permitted to change their levush and others whom he didn’t. I haven’t yet seen any places where the Rebbe addressed this idea outright (it’s mainly rumors), so I’m not so clear on this, but my understanding of the reasoning for not allowing to change was:

1) Lubavitch was never very into the concept of levush, to an extent it was looked at as a chitzoniusdike idea, and the Rebbe didn’t want people to feel that the way you dress decides if you are Lubavitch or not (people shouldn’t feel that now that they wear a different kind of hat they are considered an official Lubavitcher and potur from avoda…)

2) Often, similar to new baalei teshuva, the family of a new Lubavitcher was very nervous about the change and often something so blatant as changing one’s garments could set off bitter family strife.

3) It is indeed possible that another reason was as ARSo wrote, that the Rebbe felt that by keeping the levush they would have an easier time relating to those from their previous sect, thus making it easier for that individual to do hafatzas hamaayanos, which has been a main focus of the Lubavitcher derech since the times of the Alter Rebbe (originating already from the Baal Shem Tov with chassidus haklolis).

It’s interesting to note that when chassidim came from Russia, many of them were also instructed by the Rebbe not to change their levush from a kasket to a fedora (e.g. the iconic Reb Mendel Futerfas).

Another related incident: Artist Boruch Nachshon joined Chabad from a modern Israeli family in the 50s. Before his chassuna, his mashpia advised him to begin wearing a hat and kapote, but his family (kippa seruga style) didn’t want him to. The Rebbe wrote to him (14 Tammuz 5722):
פשוט שאין זה ענין כלל לעורר רוגז (ועל אחת כמה וכמה – מחלוקת) בדבר הלבוש בעת החופה והחתונה, ושנואה המחלוקת כו’ וגדול השלום.
Since then he wore a french barrett instead of a classic Chabad hat.

(Again, aside from the last story, I haven’t seen anything written about this, so they are just my theories or rumors that I’ve heard. I’ll try to do more research on the matter)

I think Moschiach will mint bitcoins.

I completely agree.

As a matter of fact, I will ONLY accept a Moshiach who mines bitcoins (to answer all those who have kept asking me who I would accept as Moshiach).

This thread (beginning with the tunnel incident and continuing with the perpetual discussion about the Rebbe being Moshiach) reminds me of this story that I recently read:

In a certain country the government had to keep the prisoners busy, and therefore they would be put to work every day all day.

On one floor, the job for the prisoners was to replace buttons on army uniforms, and on the other prisoners were in charge of removing buttons from old unusable uniforms to give to those putting buttons.

After a couple weeks, there was no more work left to do for the army, and the warden was worried that riots would break out if the prisoners were bored, so he came up with a brilliant idea.

Every day, the clothes would move from one floor to the other, some would put buttons and some would remove, on the same army suits… and that’s how they kept busy week after week, year after year….

PS when you have people like @83 who think what was done was 100% ok is all the proof that you need a living breathing rebbe.

common, no one has yet answered my question: What about other chassidusen that also have dumb people who do really dumb things like violence and fighting that makes it to the news etc. DESPITE having a living breathing rebbe? The only response I’ve gotten is “How dare you point out problems in any sect which is not Chabad.”

In the Rebbe’s opening address on Yud Shevat 73 years ago, he said that Chabad chassidus doesn’t believe in the concept of relying on the rebbe to do all the work for you. Every chossid has bechira chofshis to work on refining himself and behaving properly, or ch”v the opposite.

Here’s a free translation of that sicha (right after saying the first maamar, formally accepting the nesius):

Fellow Jews, listen now!

Traditionally, Chabad has demanded that every individual do his own avodah alone, instead of relying on the Rebbeim. This is the difference66 between the Polish school of Chassidus and the Chabad school of Chassidus. The former school has a non-literal interpretation of the verse,67 וצדיק באמונתו יחי-ה — “And a tzaddik lives with his faith”: “Do not read yichyeh but [in the causative mood] yechayeh.” I.e., it is the tzaddik who gives life to all those who are bound to him. We of Chabad, however, all have to do our own work alone, with all the 248 organs and 365 sinews of the body and with all the 248 organs and 365 sinews of the soul.

The Sages teach:68 הכל בידי שמים חוץ מיראת שמים — “Everything is in the hands of Heaven except for the fear of Heaven.” I am not (G‑d forbid) withdrawing from giving help to the degree that one’s capabilities allow. However, since “Everything is in the hands of Heaven except for the fear of Heaven,” then if there is no independent individual avodah, what can be gained from giving out manuscripts [of Chassidus], singing niggunim, and saying LeChaim?

The Rebbe [Rayatz] used to warn chassidim against self-delusion. Every individual chassid himself has to transform the folly of the Other Side [i.e., of the forces of evil] and the seething disposition of his animal soul — to kedushah.69

Kuvult, I’m not sure what you mean or how it answers my point.
If you’re trying to say that an outsider to chassidus doesn’t see anything special about it? That’s pretty much what I responded to you previously about the outsider historian’s claim to frum Jews.

I’m not exactly sure where you saw in my response that I was offended

I’m sorry for assuming that.

your maligning a group of Jews on a public forum for selfish reasons was pretty disgusting.

Question: Do you feel that YWN’s reporting on the 770 tunnels was also maligning a group of Jews on a public forum and therefore pretty disgusting?

If not, why is reporting on the Ponevezh brawl in 5781 any different?
If yes, why didn’t you comment on the entire YWN article instead of focusing on a single commenter?

the article that was very clear that it didn’t have any issue with Lubavitch per se, and that those boys were in no way representative of the greater community, and despite that you felt a need, just in case it would somehow be misconstrued as a chillul Lubavitch, to immediately show how other Jews have the same problem.

And it’s quite apparent from the existence of this thread that it was indeed seen as representative of issues in Lubavitch as a whole, which is why I feel that my comment was necessary, as I elaborated on in earlier posts (people find faults in others but not in themselves, etc.).

I want to clarify again that I’m not ch”v looking to condemn other communities, rather point to a greater issue that we must all deal with together.

when you were rightfully criticizing the editors description of these boys as terrorists, you decided to describe the yerushalmi protesters as animals

My intention was not at all to start calling Jews names. It was purely a play on words from the nusach used by YWN:
They compared the bochurim to “animals in Gaza” so I was saying (slightly sarcastically) that even if they want to use a derogatory term for these bochurim, it should be comparing them to other violent protestors in the Jewish community, not Hamas terrorists who killed Jews. My using the word “animals” about violent protestors was purely to emphasize how I was borrowing YWN’s nusach.

So you agree that litvish Torah learning is the same as Lubavitch learning chassidus?

Not exactly, but specifically in this context of sometimes one can learn and learn but it doesn’t have the desired effect on him – I think this does apply to both. Maybe on different levels, I’m not sure

ujm, thanks!

mod,

How many is several? Just asking

Dictionary definition: “More than two but not many.”

In this case: Three.

Not emesdik. Watch the video. 

your intent was something else I don’texpect from you.

My intent in bringing up Ponevezh is not chas v’shalom just for the sake of bashing other Jews or saying lashon hara.

Unfortunately, human nature is that we are quick to notice faults in others while ignoring faults in ourselves. Therefore, many will rush to say that the entire Lubavitch movement is problematic due to the wild actions of some young people who consider themselves Lubavitch but don’t represent Lubavitch, while they completely ignore that their own community may suffer from the very same issue of the existence of wild, radical, violent groups of extremist young people.

The very fact that so many people were perfectly fine with the Lubavitch coverage, yet were so offended by my mentioning what happened in Ponevezh really proves this point.

Incorrect conclusion. “People” weren’t offended. You took a comment about something current and, instead of responding to it, shlepped in a past event of intense controversy to you as if there’s a connection/to make a connection. When there is current coverage of animalistic behavior of others, r”l, it is expected as it is current coverage.

This also answers the claim of the OP that this issue is specific to Lubavitch due to the “chasidus without a present rebbe”-status (so to speak), by pointing out that communities that don’t necessarily fit this narrative can suffer from the same issues.

I still don’t fully understand why people are so shocked by my insinuating that YWN would cover brawls in other Jewish sects, but covering Lubavitch doesn’t bother them.

P.S. I’m not necessarily pro publicizing these things. I’m just not understanding the seeming double standard.

Im not pro publicizing much at all – 

It’s become the wild West.

Becoming the wild west? Or something wild happened there a few days ago when about a dozen wild boys tried breaking a wall?

How many yeshivos did this not happen with?
Just look at YWN, and you’ll find many cases of vandalism by wild yeshiva bochurim in all kinds of yeshivos. And there are many more not reported by YWN (such as the riots in Ponevezh in 5781).

You seem to be keyed in to Ponevezh

The unfortunate thing is that for סיבות שונות ומשונות, this story made an uproar in the news.

do yidden have nothing else to worry about in 2024 except saying “happy holidays”? Gosh, too much time on your hands.

I missed the part where someone said that we have “nothing else to worry about” except this interesting and relevant question about what is halachically permissible at this time of year, and if there is an issue of עבודה זרה or אביזרייהו (based on the halachos in שלחן ערוך יורה דעה סי’ קמח ס”ט).

most of the material appears to be not Alter Rebbe

As for the link above. I can’t open it with my filter and there is no siman 148 in the SA Harav (what is the summary?)

The link is a bit misleading, I should have clarified:
Shulchanaruchharav. com is a website with thousands of halacha articles on various subjects, not necessarily based on Shulchan Aruch Harav.

This is what it says there (there are also lengthy references in the footnotes which I didn’t bring):

May one wish a merry Chris-mas, or happy holidays, to a gentile acquaintance or neighbor?

Merry chris-mass:[6] The term Chris-mas is not to be mentioned, due to the prohibition against mentioning the name of idols.

Other greetings: If the gentile does not believe in the religious connotations behind the holiday, then there is no prohibition to mention to him “Happy Holidays.”[7] If, however, the gentile believes in the idolatry related content behind Christmas, seemingly, one may only do so in a pressing situation, to avoid enmity.[8] Certainly one should not go out of one’s way to greet him and send him Holiday wishes, such as through social media, unless lack of doing so will cause enmity. In all cases that one meets a gentile acquaintance outside who is a practicing Christian, he is to greet him with a low voice, as stated above.

May one wish others a happy New Years on the 1st of January?[9]

There is no prohibition involved in wishing a happy New Years to a gentile who does not affiliate the day with any Christian connotations or worship of a deity.[10] One is to avoid wishing a happy New Years to a practicing Christian [particularly Catholics, and Lutherans] who believes in the Christian doctrine behind the New Year’s Holiday.[11] However, even in such a case, one may do so in a pressing situation, in order to avoid causing enmity and anti-Semitism.[12] Certainly one should not go out of one’s way to greet him and send him Holiday wishes, such as through social media, unless lack of doing so will cause enmity. In all cases that one meets a gentile acquaintance outside who is a practicing Christian and believes in the holiday of New Years, he is to greet him with a low voice, as stated above. [In general, it is not customary of Jews to wish other Jews a Happy new year on the first of January.[13] However, it is related, that Rebbe Levi Yitzchak of Berditchiv would wish others a Happy new year on the 1st of January. Likewise, the Rebbe once wished a Chassid a happy new years on the morning of January first, in continuation of the tradition from Rebbe Levi Yitzchak.[14] This is based on the verse in psalms 87:6 ““Hashem Yispor Bichsov Amim..”]

Great halachic overview regarding wishes on Kratzmach and New Years here:

https://shulchanaruchharav. com/halacha/may-one-wish-holiday-greetings-to-gentiles-merry-chris-mass-happy-holidays/

Exactly, so you are not going to take advantage of the nonJew in any way, even when it is possible al pi din – say, he makes a mistake.

Very true and important message.

Interesting to note from today’s Rambam (הלכות גניבה פ”ז ה”ח):
אֶחָד הַנּוֹשֵׂא וְהַנּוֹתֵן עִם יִשְׂרָאֵל אוֹ עִם עַכּוּ”ם אִם מָדַד אוֹ שָׁקַל בְּחָסֵר עוֹבֵר עַל לֹא תַּעֲשֶׂה וְחַיָּב לְהַחְזִיר. וְכֵן אָסוּר לְהַטְעוֹת אֶת הָעַכּוּ”ם בְּחֶשְׁבּוֹן אֶלָּא יְדַקְדֵּק עִמּוֹ שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (ויקרא כה נ) “וְחִשַּׁב עִם קֹנֵהוּ” אַף עַל פִּי שֶׁהוּא כָּבוּשׁ תַּחַת יָדֶיךָ. קַל וָחֹמֶר לְעַכּוּ”ם שֶׁאֵינוֹ כָּבוּשׁ תַּחַת יָדֶיךָ. וַהֲרֵי הוּא בִּכְלַל (דברים כה טז) “כִּי תוֹעֲבַת ה’ אֱלֹהֶיךָ כָּל עשֵֹׁה אֵלֶּה כּל עשֵֹׁה עָוֶל” מִכָּל מָקוֹם:

I wonder how all of these theories affect our behavior.

Hopefully, the idea that we are the purpose of creation should cause us to realize that as Jews our every single מחשבה דיבור ומעשה has infinite value and affects the entire cosmos. This is a tremendous privilege and responsibility, which is why we must try to put lots of thought into everything that we do: Is this really appropriate from someone who is the purpose of creation and the entire universe is being created for him to behave this way right now?