The following Op-ed appeared on CrownHeights.info:
At a recent Chaddishe auspicious day, celebrated with a children’s rally at 770 with several schools participating, there was a teacher from one of the schools that delivered a captivating story to the assembled children. It was a tale from the days of the Baal Shem Tov.
The teacher described this poor Jew thrown into prison by the poretz for lacking the funds to cover rent. He relayed to the spellbound children; “The yid was in such great despair and so sad, he felt that nobody can help him, so he screamed to Hashem from the depths of his heart, “Yechi Adoneinu… leolam Voed!”
Today, dropping my three year old child off at school, I entered the classroom with my kid, and the children were in the midst of davening. Yechi was a very central part as it was sung with great vigor. I was astounded. He isn’t enrolled in a fringe school, rather one of the mainstream ones that has been around for decades.
Do schools have policies regarding yechi? If not, why don’t they?
Shouldn’t sensitive Hashkafos of this sort be left to the parents to instill in their children the values that they choose for their own children?
Isn’t the main thing to have achdus and maintain proper uniform Chabad ideals and avoid the issues of contention which cause pirud halevavos?
Is it the role of a school that serve a diverse parent body, to be an indoctrination ground for children from the moment they begin to develop?
(Source: CHI)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
25 Responses
If it’s a chassidic school the school and the teachers are obligated to teach them EVERYTHING about “that” chassidut; about their minhagim, about the current Rebbe (if there is one), about the previous ones all the way to the Bash”t.
If “yechi” is part of that chassidut then ‘yes’, it should be part of the curriculum. You don’t have to send to that school, but if you do, you have to accept that this is part of the curriculum.
Very unfortunate situation! I doubt the great giant, Lubavitcher Rebbe TZ’L, would have tolerated any of this in his world-renowned Yeshivas. A BIG chaval.
The Yeshivos and Mechanchim believe, with a very strong Emunah, that saying and believing Yechi, is an intrinsic part of Yiddishkeit.
How could they deprive, the pure Neshomos of their Talmudim, from an integral part of our Emunah Sheleimo.
We all saw the Rebbeh on the balcony, Eneinu Ro’uh Lo Zorr.
This is the problem with a chassidus when theres no Rebbe to take over. Im pretty sure this is along the lines of Avoda Zara.
This is nuts! ‘Yechi’ is a throwback to Christianity, and anyone who believes the rebbe is still alive his wine is posul. How can this be brought up in Jewish civilized conversation as if there is a shayla? Is toevah marriage acceptable? With constant repetition we are now on the defensive explaining why we don’t accept it. Don’t cause the rebbe to be pained more in olam haba. Let this fringe craziness die out of its own and stop giving it legitimacy.
May the true moshiach come soon and set right those who have mistakenly follow this path. May those who started it and perpetuate it for political and financial reasons be shown the errors of their ways.
As a chosid chabad with a non chabad upbringing ( Rabbi Schwei in Philly and Mir ) I think that live and let live as long as it is said internally and not in a shul that would not agree with it. I would not send my son to a school or teacher that teaches it but I can let them live with their shitah it will not go away. In my shul nobody says it but their are shuls that do and live and let live.
Also to Number 5 most food you eat is under a chabad hescher if you like it or not and our wine is just fine. Most mashgichim all over the world are chabad chasidim and you all know that. Where is the OU getting a person in Fresno CA or Bakersfield CA to watch a wine run or dried fruit…. So just enjoy the food you have been eating for years with the chabad person watching it. I agree it not right to say it but since a group says it and they are shomer torah and mitzvos and learn chasidis I dont belive anybody believes in a word you say.
I agree the Rebbe would not be happy with them but just the extremists not the people who mean it and keep their belief to themselves their deserve respect. It would not bother me if a group said Yechi on Rav Hutner.
Anyway let everyone have a great YT of Sukos eish Eched Bilev Echad!!!
Simcha
Should make a mchaah! Probably yehoreg vaal yaavor to say it. May the true boreh olom be revealed in this world, and may truth reign and people stop their folly!
To #5
Your wine is Posul if you carry in Boro Park, or you go to the Kosel, or you do a Melocho before 72 Min., or you rely on the Groh’s Sof Zman Krias Shema Doireiso.
Yes, according to some.
Your wine might be Posul if don’t accept the Rebbe as Melech Hamoshiach.
I remember the Rebbie was against singing ‘Yechi’ but when he suffered his stroke, he could not protest anymore so the chasidim danced and sang ‘Yechi’ to the face of the Rebbie who enjoyed it.
But that it should be part of the davening, not for me. It is unfortunate that it is the vogue among the young people, but they never had the rebbie in their sights and never lived with him as people in my generation did.
IF Chabad believes the person was a “Yechi-nik” they will kick them out.
Joe(Athought), anything the officially right-wing people do is right even if it’s very wrong? Right, Joe?
If I had school age children I would not want them educated by minim, no mater how good the school is and how well meaning they are the teachers and school leadership.
Chabad is a cult, no more and no less. Chassidic outreach molds duplicate chassidim, no matter how close the subject was to his own minhag and tradition. Case in point: I remember seeing newly minted Lubavitchers made from off the derech Moroccans. A litvish instution at the same time was cultivating a cadre of baal teshuva Moroccan Rabonim to return to Morocco to save the remnants from assimilation.
Chaimz, I witnessed the crowds at 770 belting out the jingle when the Rebbe was present and still lucid. It was not an auspicious time and place to have gone to daven mincha.
Chabad chassidus is much more than this. I don’t think that the Lubavitcher Rebbe, may his memory be a blessing, would like any of this. The important thing is ahavas yisroel and achdus. From personal experience I see alot of lubavitchers who do not say yechi and the main mosdos teach yirah shomayim and ahavas torah . The world is difficult enough. There will be fringe elements……
I believe that those who don’t believe in yechi should separate from yeshiva.
When I go in to 770 or to the Ohel, I feel like yechis dominated the place. So I wonder is there any lubavitcher who doesn’t believe in yechi.
If you don’t like the “Yechi” why are you sending your kids to a school where it is recited?
If someone sends their child to a Catholic school, why do they protest when their child is taught Catholicism? Sending a child to a school without first checking out what type of school they are sending their child to shows a complete lack of common sense or responsibility.
Yank your kid out of that school and run the other way as fast as you can and don’t look back. His future as a frum yid is at stake. Yechi=Fringe messianic and far from mainstream yiddishkeit.
Not sure how this makes sense?
Parents voluntarily send their children to a Chabad Yeshiva and then question if the Yeshiva should teach “Yechi”?
What did I miss here?
Chaim- don’t you think that’s a bit of an overreaction? Since when is believing in the wrong Mashiach avodah zarah? Since when does it make you a kofer, apikores, and make your wine posul? They might be wrong… but don’t get carried away.
This yechi stuff and similar moishichist meshugaas has been going on since the last Rebbe was niftar and a decision was made not to replace him with one of several highly respected Lubavitch rabbonim. While it would be nice to have a new rebbe, if doing so would create the kind of ongoing chilul hashem we’ve seen among the Satmar after the last rebbe was niftar, maybe its better to have a few dysfunctional yeshivish guys running around Eastern Parkway waving yellow flags and a few misguided Mechanchim singing Yechi. I’ll take that any time over the Zalman versus Aron mud-wrestling show.
When I went to school, the Rebbe was alive. Then, yechi was an integral part of the chassidus and theology of Chabad. The Rebbe is no longer with us, of course, so to instill the idea of yechi into our children is repugnant, and yes, avoda zara. The children should learn how the Rebbe lived and what he taught and how the world is much less holy without him in it. His memory should be honored. Yechi is a disgrace to the Holy Rebbe’s memory and the way he lived his life so much in the real world, not in one of fantasy and myth.
#11 Shmoe #16,17,19 responded to your misunderstanding. It has nothing to do with right wing but with common sense.
“ViDoveed avdee Nosee lohem lioilom”
“Doveed Melech Yisroel Chay Vikayom”
“Yichee HaMelech Doveed Lioilom!”
“Yichee haMelech haMoshiach Lioilom!”
_______
-Moishe Emes ViSoirosoi Emes
“Chasidim zeinen ein mishpocho”
Chasidim are one family.
Kivoid Raboi kodmin.
A Chasidishe Chinuch instills Toiroh, Halochoh and Hashkofoh, including Chasidus and Hiskashrus to the Rebbe in their Talmidim.
There’s no way around it.
Amoraim, Rashi, Rambam, Abarbenel, Rabbeinu Bechaye, The Chasam Sofer as well as a myriad of others throughout Torah tradition from the ancient past through the present set a basis for this Hashkofoh.