@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.

There’s a frum community that had a direct hand in getting Hillary Clinton in power in a tit-for-tat trade when President Clinton was lame ducking. The oilom, by and large, called it a massive chillul Hashem, but I know of at least one major Jewish publication that held the opposite, and called it a kiddush Hashem. From their point of view, it doesn’t matter what policies Democrats hold of, as long as they can help Jews.

@sechel83 The Meshichisters created a l’mafreya concept of Moshiach from the dead, claiming it’s always existed. At no point in (literally hundreds) of false Moshiachs and Moshiach cults that we have spawned in the last 2000+ years, has anyone announced a Moshiach who was dead. Until 1996.

@vdnrtakh1 AdirBMelucha. I disagree with points one and two. Most frum Jews are reluctant to allow their children to marry someone from a different background. Shtarkeh Chassidim won’t marry Litvaks, many Sephardim won’t marry Ashkenazim, a Yeshivhishe family won’t marry into a Vizhnitzer family. Especially Chabad which expects a certain lifestyle of shlichus and other practices that a non-Chabad family may not want. As for beards, it’s a Chassidishe thing. The issur of shaving also includes scissoring away the entire beard.

@Always_Ask_Questions What gets me is the hypocrisy of it. Everything Hunter Biden is being accused of, Trump has done ten times over (used political influence to help a family member close a deal, shady money, election fraud, etc.). Everyone screaming to arrest Hunter should be shouting just as loud to arrest Trump.

Dear Yechi HaMelech @chochom,

If you’re going to accept Likutei Sichos as an important basis of your Yiddishkeit, than surely you accept the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s repeated statements that he’s no Moshiach and begging the messianics to stop their activities as true too, no? So then by that logic, it’s impossible for the Lubavitcher Rebbe to be Moshiach.

@RSo I know there’s a ton of criticism against him, and many Litvishe Rabbonim blamed him for the decline of much of Chabad into a bizarre messainic cult while he was alive and well, but I can’t say I’ve heard anyone say he wasn’t a Tzaddik.

One example: A very very Chareidi Rebbi I knew was giving his requisite “College is terrible” speech, and used as an example “Only three gedolim ever went to college, one started a apikorsus institution, ones followers became a weird Moshiach movement, and only one was OK”. (He was referring to Rav JB Soleveitchik, Rav MM Schneerson, and Rav Yitzchok Hutner). As a Yekke, I asked why he excluded Rav Breuer, and he said that he wasn’t really on the same level (not sure if he meant in terms of gadlus or influence).

@OrthodoxRabbi1995 No talmid chacham or Rov that I know says that the Lubavitcher Rebbe ZT”L wasn’t a tzaddik. But I don’t want you to get the wrong impression. He was a Tzaddik and possibly one of the Gedolei HaDor, but there were many greater tzaddikim that preceded him, and he was one of many tzaddikim in his time.

@sechel83 The Vilna Gaon is who people refer to when saying “The Gaon”. The Rogotchover I don’t believe is ever referred to by that title, he’s always “The Rogotchover Rebbe”.