Chassidim do not hit

 

This is analogous to a compassionate, wise and righteous father who hits his son. Surely a wise son should not turn his back to escape and find himself help, or even an intercessor to his father, who is compassionate, righteous and kind (chassid).

The Rebbe Rayatz once remarked1 that when the Alter Rebbe first speaks of the father who punishes, he does not use the term “chassid”. (He uses it only later, in the context of the intercessor.) The reason, says the Rebbe, is that a father who smites his child may indeed be compassionate, righteous and wise — but he is not a chassid, for a chassid does not hit!

So what about all these "Chassidim" that hit kids in school? I guess they are not Chassidim. 

Marc Shapiro on Chabad and the Rebbe

 https://torahinmotion.org/podcast/the-making-of-my-most-recent-book-a-thirty-year-story-part-42  50:30

https://torahinmotion.org/podcast/the-making-of-my-most-recent-book-a-thirty-year-story-part-43  21:50

"(Reflecting on a long letter that the Lubavitcher Rebbe wrote to Professor Marc Shapiro's father, who is a historian) It shows you that someone he just met for a few minutes, but in writing a letter he's cognizant, he could have written just a short little letter, thank you, he goes into pages, expounding on this (that we have an advantage over earlier generations in having living proof of faith through Jewish history). And he had to think about this when he wrote it. That's the greatness of the Rebbe. Unfortunately, many people don't see this. They are always looking for negatives. What can you say about the Rebbe? He created a revolution in Judaism. So every time you have a revolution, you have certain dark spots and unfortunate things. (Shapiro had talked earlier about mashichist shluchim in India and Rutgers College). But what he accomplished in terms of the Jewish world, no one came close. And to the Rebbe's credit, and the Litvish don't like this but it's the truth, the Litivsh who were so opposed to kiruv and all these things, Shlomo Carlebach had to leave Lakewood because of that, now of course they are leaders in it, it's all because of the success of Chabad. If Chabad had not gotten into it, they never would have. And they do the exact same thing that Chabad did. They are in all these colleges now, the Litvish Charedim, and what do they do? They ask people, are you Jewish? Come, we're having a seder, we're having this and that. They do the same thing that Chabad did. Chabad I guess had to break the ice on it. This is the vision of the Rebbe. And there's a lot that can be said about the Rebbe, and just because you have some crazy shulchim in certain places, that doesn't take away from all the great things that shluchim do and what the Rebbe did. 

And the Rebbe's a thinker. Elliot Wolfson could not have, Elliot Wolfson who's so erudite, he's written so much, he's wouldn't have written a whole book on the Rebbe's kabbalistic ideas if the Rebbe wasn't a great thinker. And the fact that it's hard to understand one page of that book because all the jargon it's written in, derida and all this stuff,  post-modern stuff, doesn't take away from the fact that the Rebbe is not just a doer, he's also a thinker. And most thinkers are not doers and most doers are not thinkers. So the Rebbe is special. " 

Professor Marc Shapiro  https://torahinmotion.org/podcast/the-making-of-my-most-recent-book-a-thirty-year-story-part-43  28:35 - 30:02

Rebbe on the exemption

 "God divided the commandments. Some apply to both men and women. Then there are some commandments from which men are exempt so that they may focus more on those activities unique to their purpose. Likewise, there are commandments from which women are exempt to allow them to accomplish more in the areas entrusted to them. Now, you might think that the reward for the commandments is awarded only to those who actually perform them. But the Torah declares, as the Arizal explains: the fact that women are exempt from some commandments doesn't mean, God forbid, that they have no share in them. Rather, when the husband performs those commandments he does so on behalf of his wife as well. As it is with kiddush on Shabbos: when one person recites kiddush he exempts all those who are listening to him as well even though they are merely hearing it. The same applies to the commandments from which women are exempt like the commandment to write a Torah scroll for instance. God established that women do indeed share in the benefit. They were only exempted from performing the actual deed for when the man fulfills it, he does so as a representative and on behalf of his wife. 

But the question could be asked: Perhaps this only occurs after marriage when she has a husband? The Zohar states that this is incorrect. The souls of husband and wife were created like all souls in Heaven from which they then descended. In heaven they were created as one soul. They were separated into two bodies only when they descended into this world. And so Torah calls an unmarried man a half-body. And this is also true of the woman. And then, when the right time comes, God brings them together, for is He who ordains the match. This teaches us that even before marriage God knows that the half-souls of a young man and his future bride are part of one whole. So, even before marriage as the young man fulfills commandments in which only men are obligated he might not realize it. But God who gave prescribed commandments and their reward certainly knows that they are performed in part for him and in part for the woman, who, at the proper time, will be re-united with him to become one unit. So years before his wedding, and even during early childhood, when a boy performs a commandment incumbent only on men, it is done in part for his half-soul's female counterpart, and the same is true of the woman. (Lubavitcher Rebbe, Farbrengen of 26 Iyar, 5744, May 27, 1984 in "Two Halves of a Whole," Living Torah, 1657)

Manalism

"His greatness was Torah. His life was Torah. Everything about him was Torah. Nothing else mattered to him outside of Torah."

This is a terrible slander. Did God matter to him? Did Klal Yisroel matter? Did mitzvos matter? You are seeing here Manalism in action, that's militant neo-Litvish madness. 

https://yated.com/rav-chaim-ztl/

Did it start here:

"The idea of the highest form of Torah, this is what Reb Aharon brought to America. This highest form of sitting and learning l’sheim Shomayim. Sitting and learning and nothing else mattered. This is what he put and planted in America."  https://www.shemayisrael.com/ravaharon/rwolowitz.htm

The litvish slips in

 https://collive.com/what-the-rebbe-said-was-pikuach-nefesh-these-days/

He makes a mistake here, going into the Litivsh spiel. See my response below. 

Agudah

Take a Hike (collive.com)

Rav Avigdor Miller on Rebbes Are Ladders

 

Rav Avigdor Miller on Rebbes Are Ladders

 

Q: Why are the Satmerer chassidim fighting the Lubavitcher chassidim? Do you approve of this?

 

A: Now if you’re chassidim, you’re going to have to bear with me because I’m going to hurt your feelings. There is a basic weakness in all chassidim. The basic weakness is “My Rebbe” “My Rebbe” is a wonderful thing. It accomplishes a lot of good things – but it causes a lot of trouble too. Before chassidim, all Jews said “My Hakodosh Boruch Hu!” and that’s all. However, when the Ba’al Shem Tov saw that a lot of Jews had stopped saying that, so he said that it’s better to say “My Rebbe” than not to say anything at all. And if you say long enough “My Rebbe”, in the course of time you’ll say “My Hakodosh Boruch Hu” too. But there have been very many plain people who never graduate past the “My Rebbe” stage. And therefore “My Rebbe,” “Your Rebbe,” and they scratch out the eyes of each other. That’s a weakness.

 

If you advance beyond that stage, all rebbes are “My Rebbe.” All rebbes! The Satmerer Rebbe! Ahh! Zol ehr lang leiben!  A wonderful man. He’s a big warrior; and he accomplished for us so much. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, zol ehr lang leiben!  He accomplished so much and he is accomplishing. They should both be our rebbes.

 

But when someone says “only this one,” and the other person says “only this one,” then trouble comes. And that’s the basic weakness.

 

It shouldn’t be because people are supposed to graduate. A rebbe is only a ladder. You climb up on your ladder. The rebbe makes it easier to climb to Hakodosh Boruch Hu. But if a man just stands on the ladder and never reaches the shelf, then we tell him, “What are you standing there for?!” There are a lot of people standing on ladders. This one says, “My ladder is better,” and this one says, “My ladder is better.” So we tell them, “Get going already. Go higher!” And that causes trouble.

 

TAPE # 165 (April 1976), 1:06:46- 1:08:59