From a Yiddishe standpoint, any frum married women is a traditional wife by definition.

From a secular perspective, it hearkens back to an idealized concept that never really existed in reality. There were rich families, where the women were pampered all day and never lifted a finger. And their were poorer families, where the women worked themselves to the bone. The “traditional wife”, who stays around the house all day making herself pretty and cooking for her husband and kids, is something from 1950s media as a fantasy both men and women would like to have.

@EchadHaemes I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. It’s just that Chabad takes a different approach to interacting with goyim than the rest of the frum world. What that results in is tons of content online that’s frankly baffling to anyone who isn’t Chabad. Not just gimmel Tammuz, but also Elul posts about “The king outside” or something, and all references to “The Rebbe” being Rav Schneerson of blessed memory. Compare that to virtually any non-Chabad frum publication, like Mispacha or Ami. If gimmel Tammuz is even mentioned (it’s usually not) there will be clarification as to what that day means. Whether or not it was non-Chabad who started it, it’s hard to push the argument that gimmel Tammuz means anything to the vast majority of frum Jews who are unaffiliated with Lubavitch.

@pure-yiddishkeit The fact that Chabad is very good at kiruv and extremely useful at times, does not negate criticism of them. I know plenty of non-Chabad Rabbonim who won’t daven in a Chabad shul that they never heard of since they don’t know if the shul (or “house” as I think you call them) rejects the apikorsus aspects of Chabad messianism.

• Download “VLC Media Player” to your PC
• Right click on the video and select “Copy URL”
• Open VLC
• Select “Media->Open Network Stream->Network”
• in the text bar that says “Network URL” right click and “Paste”
• Click on the down arrow next to “Play” and select “Convert”
• Ignore any options you don’t understand and hit “PLay”

Nisht a hin, nisht a herr. He’s very much a goy who Hashem gave koichos too that now squanders his oilom ha’zeh on naarische pursuits and zivul. I get that he’s a brilliant businessman and Hashem has given him much hatzlocho, but there are literally hundreds of billionaires who are better people to look up to, and don’t build big cars that look like a five year old’s cardboard design.

I want all my restaurant food served to me Israeli style. I have to walk up to a counter and wait for the attention of an extremely irate looking man who acts like he is doing my THE BIGGEST FAVOR even though I’m the only one there. Then I place my order (obviously without bothering him to ask what’s on the menu) to have him shout back at me “WHAT TO PUT IN?”. Then one to fifteen minutes later hear my name shouted where I grab some mess of bread, vegetables and grilled turkey wrapped in wax paper served on a plastic disposable plate.

@Amil Zola “Bartleby the Scrivener”? In what way? Bartleby didn’t take things literally, he (for some unclear reason) had a drive to be a scrivener, copying down legal documents, and was mentally incapable of doing anything else.

Dear coffee addict,

Mayo Clinic was the only major health provider that took HCQ as a serious treatment for COVID. However, unlike what some (many unfortunately frum) people would have you believe, they never treated it as a magic bullet that is a cure. For a period of time (probably between six months to a year) they used it as part of a regime under strict supervision of medical professionals. They stopped using it when better options became available, and when its effectiveness was questionable, at best. Last week some blogger noticed that it was still listed on their website, a holdover from 2020, and made a big fuss about it. So they removed it from their website.

That is all. This is all public knowledge reported in multiple sources that can easily be checked with archived websites. Do the research.

@Fanatic: In certain large Chassidish communities, such as Satmar, Vizhnitz, Belz, Ger, and Bobov, the overwhelming majority of married women shave their hair.

@bentorah32 What made Rabi Akiva realize that Bar Kochba wasn’t Moshiach? He died.

Ah yes, Rehov Chabad, a wonderful street! It goes from the Rova parking lot all the way to the Armenian Shuk, right near the main entrance to the Churva. It has such a rich history, like everything in the Old City. Did you know that the name “Chabad” is actually a ta’os sofer? It was originall “Habad” with a hay because of the mill that was there, but the sign was fading and people misread it.

If you read Shaylos v’Teshuvos of some Acharonim, they mention asking experts on subjects about certain questions. I believe both Rav Moshe and the Steipler ZT”L have well known teshuvos where they give the answer as “I asked a doctor and he said…”.

I use OpenDNS which is far from perfect, as you need to install it on your home router and it doesn’t filter if you go to a coffee shop or something.

I’m looking in to getting TechLoq. It’s not expensive, and it has content filtering, so it checks the words and pictures on a webpage before serving it. It also does not have spyware. I frankly don’t want all my passwords and emails available to some anonymous guy in an office somewhere, which a lot of filters do.

I’ve made it? I guess I should lay off the CR for a while.

@Menachem Shmei I don’t make it a habit of going to many Chabad houses nor Lubavitch shuls. I’ve been to maybe seven in my life. I know of one that has a picture of their Rebbe front and center. By simple logic it’s highly unlikely that this is the only one and I happen to have stumbled on to it.

There are people in authority in Chabad (you know their names) who have gone on record saying things like “Asking the (dead) Rebbe for help”, “The Rebbe is listening to our teffilos”, and “This is happening because the Rebbe wanted it”. You may be in denial that people literally daven to a man, but in the opinion of most of the Gedolim in Klal Yisroel, it absolutely happens and Chabad does nothing to discourage it. In fact, it’s encouraged with things like giving an invisible man an Aliya l’Torah, and telling people to ask bakoshois of a dead man at his kever.

@Menachem-Shmei At least one in Tzfat. Can’t say the specifics, because I don’t recall. Can you state with absolute honesty that no one davening in 770 believes him to still be sitting in his chair up front? Or that there’s no significant amount of Chabadskers that have their Rebbe in mind when davening Shmoneh Esrei?

The most Litvishe answer to this question is a story I heard from a Rebbi of mine.

Sometime in the 70s, a man who worked for Philly (The Philadelphia Yeshiva under Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky and Rav Elya Svei L’havdil) wrote a whole kuntrus documenting all the sources of the Golem of Prague and cross referencing them with historical dates, other mentions of golems, the Maharals writings, etc. His conclusion was that there is no way that any of the Golem stories were true.

Anyways, he brought his sefer to Rav Shach for a haskama. Rav Shach asked him, “Do you think it’s possible for the Maharal to have made a golem?”. “Of course he could of!”. “Then what’s the difference whether he did or didn’t?”.

@common-saychel Everyone had EconoPhone/Presto cards to call home. One year the waiters got fed up from not collecting any tips in first half or visiting day, so they ganged up on all the kids making them call home and beg their parents to tip the waiter $25.

Was it a Federation camp back then too, with so many scholarship kids?

@menachem-shmei I don’t mean to be rude or insulting, but I have a hard time believing you about how strict people were about not davening towards a picture of your Rebbe ZT”L. The reason being is that this is the type of thing I hear a lot from Chabadniks discussing their practices with frum people. The frum person will mention some Chabad thing, and the Chabadnik will gasp in horror and say “Oh no! Only a few real crazies do that! All of Chabad hates that sort of thing!”

Which is fine. Problems start when I see or hear something that directly contradicts this notion, which happens very very often. Like one day on CR a Lubavitcher will adamantly deny that there is such a thing as an Elokist. However, within the same thread a different Lubavitcher will go on a whole thing explaining how his Rebbe is “Atzmus Nasi HaDor” and we can direct our teffilos to him and he will answer them. Every time the Moshiach discussion happens, there’s someone who will claim that it’s really just one rich guy who spends all his time and money on the signs and everyone hates him. Meanwhile, you can find YouTube videos from last week of hundreds of people declaring Rav Schneerson ZT”L to be the Moshiach.

As for your claim that no “real” Chabadnik will put a picture of a Lubavitcher Rebbe by teffilos, there are literally Chabad houses and synagogues with a giant picture up on the mizrach vant. And quite a few people who do these sorts of things are in massive positions of authority.

@NevilleChaimBerlin Hey hey lay off of us Yekkes! The older crowd absolutely detests the term, probably because they recall it as an insult, “A kleineh yakkeh Yid”, and prefers a confusing mouthful like “Frankfurter am Main Juden” or some such.

@anyPotatoKugelLeft You keep telling people “read the book, read the book”. I can also write a book using Gemaras and Rishonim to say whatever I want. Point is, that no Talmid Chacham worth his salt will approve my words.

That’s what’s happening here. Mr. Lieberman wrote a book that goes against what all Gedolim, Rabbonim, Rebbes, and Talmidei Chachamim say. I will take their word against his without even glancing at what he has to say.

And that, my friend, is the final word on the subject.

sigh Mods, my intention was not to say that every letter written by a certain Gadol B’Yisroel is inane, rather that people study every word he wrote as equal to Chazal, whether it’s Torah or a simple Mazal Tov postcard.

I understand,  but emotions run high and the way it was worded begged extra sensitivity.  I appreciate your understanding.

@sechel83 No, you’re wrong. The things that people are against Chabad for don’t exist in any other Chassidus and never did. A dead Rebbe becoming Moshiach, ignoring all Torah written after the 20th century to focus on a Rebbe’s edit letters and speeches, claiming that a dead person sees everything happening in the world and directly answers teffilos, etc.

No matter what excuses you make, seforim you bring down, or explanations you give, these (and others) are things exclusive to Chabad and it’s for these reasons that people are opposed to Chabad.

Dear Esteemed Bicephalus President of the Galaxy His Honourable Zaphod Beeblebrox,

I think the “zero common ground” argument is a little like this. There have been several decades of Chabad Rabbis developing a philosophy and movement that the rest of the frum world is extremely opposed to. Chabadskers who follow those Rabbis by definition will ignore any Torah or Hashkafa from the rest of the frum world that doesn’t suit them.

So there’s no common ground, as any argument will be “The Rabbonim say that this is how to interpret the Gemara” with the response being “But my Rabbonim disagree”. It’s the same with Conservative and Open Orthodoxy. If you choose to follow a Rabbi that plays loosey goosey with the words of Chazal and ignores everyone telling him “No”, you can’t even begin a debate.

@anyPotatoKugelLeft You don’t get it. None of you Yellow Flaggers do. You can bring me alleged rayos from here to Timbuktu, it doesn’t matter. Because Talmidei Chachamim and Klal Yisroels leaders have all weighed in on this topic and know far more than some guy who wrote a book. And the unanimous view is that no, Moshiach cannot be mim ha’meisim. The only (and I stress only) dissenters on this topic are some Chabad Rabbis (but certainly not all Chabad Rabbonim) and they only started saying this after 1996.

So keep your Da’as Yochid beliefs and fringe opinions. I’ll stick with what the greatest Gedolim say that the Torah says.