mentalblog.com comments:
I tend to agree with the above comments. I am not happy about the situation, but the comments are realistic.
However as I replied to Berl yesterday, I have no interest in changing present day Lubavitz. It can not be changed, and since I am not a hasid what right to i have to call for change . but I would love to prod like minded people in trying to create a small group of cultural and spiritual Chabad people interested in White Russia, spiritual values and the study of Chasidus.
My first attempt at this failed as the proposed leader decided that his interest lay in other arenas related to Jewish life and knowledge.He gave up his role in this area.
The M'lochim are to frum and anti-Zionist and non-White Russian to offer much.
But I am sure that something will eventually come. As the Rebbe said Chazakah she kol Taamulah lo chozeres reykom.
That description sounds like an imploding Hassidic group.
Another possiblity was not discussed -that some Lubavitchers might get closer to the Litvish misnagdic camp. They are and were not always as far apart as some might think. They have certain things in common due to the common Litvish background (of course many 'new Lubavitchers' are not Litvaks, but that is another matter)(havoro, levush to a degree, some hashkofos - e.g. preference for simplicity, stress on learning-at least in theory, etc.).
Tensions between the Litvish misnagdic camp and Lubavitch have been pretty high in recent times - esp. around the time of the seventh Rebbe, somewhat under the sixth Rebbe - but there were periods of 'detente' and amicability in the past - at least relative to the above. E.g. times of Tzemach tzeddek to the sixth Rebbe perhaps. Schneur - am I right ? Maybe you can give a survey of Litvish misnagdic-Lubavitch relations in the reigns of the different Rebbes.
Off the top of my head I would suggest that, going from highest tensions to lowest, that order might be something like this -
Alter Rebbe, seventh Rebbe, sixth Rebbe, second Rebbe, fifth Rebbe, fourth Rebbe, Tzemach Tzeddek.
Schneur ?
Since new Lubavitch has little to do with White Russian (Lithuanian Judaism) I doubt there will be any reproachment between the 2 groups. Especially in light of the fact that the Yeshiva world is not Lithuanian either !
I would love to prod like minded people in trying to create a small group of cultural and spiritual Chabad people interested in White Russia, spiritual values and the study of Chasidus.
Whereas I'm interested in the chassidus and derachim in avodah of the Mittler Rebbe, who seems to have created a Chabad of avodah pnimis for all kinds of people. But I'm an outsider looking in at a chassidus that hasn't even really tried to exist for 100 years (it's clear from the kuntreisim of the Rebbe Rashab that he was trying to revive this meditative derech). I hear stories of alter Chasidim, such as Zev Drizin's grandfather, who spent hours davening every day, but I don't know a) how to get there, and b) if anyone today is even interested in it.
I feel like I'm reading about the guys who talked about the earlier guys who went into the forest and lit the fire.
At this point all we ahve is the tree.
rembrandt knew talmud and held like shmuel in sanhedrin 22a as to the order of the letters in Belshatzars feast
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