Why do people dislike Lubavitchers so much? I have written about this in the past but that was from a satirical standpoint. Due to many circumstances I seek to find out the answers to this question and others I will pose. Hopefully I will gain significant feedback from you- my loyal readers.
I understand people disliking some Lubavitchers due to their belief that their dead Rebbe is the messiah, I do not not deny he was one of the great Rabbi’s of this century, but I hardly doubt he was or is Mochiach. I understand this contention many people have with the Lubavitch movement. Ok, now let me ask you besides this reason what else is there not to like? Well many folks may answer their progressive ways of dealing with kiruv or trying to get Jews back to their roots via traditions such as putting on tefilin, lighting the menorah or shaking the lulav. So you don’t like being heckled in the street, I don’t like being asked for money by homeless people, but for that small amount of heckling wouldn’t you say it is worth it for what they happen to accomplish? I spoke to a woman tonight, we started talking about the Capital District Chabad, to which she started talking about why she dislikes chabad, and the two reasons mentioned above were her choices of debate. I am not Lubavitch, but the more I hear about how “frum†Jews HATE other “frum†Jews, the more I not only sympathize with but am drawn into the Lubavitch way so to speak.
It seems that people enjoy picking on Lubavitchers, granted many people dislike other sects of Chasidim as well, it seems to me that most people share the similar view that Lubavitchers are not only “fake†Chasidim, they are the closest thing to Judaism we have. Not only is this offensive, this is completely false. If you take away the meshichist agenda, would people still dislike Lubavitchers? Hell yes they would, apparently many folks have disliked Lubavitchers for years before Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneirson was even born. That’s right folks, it all started back in the day when some dude decided it would be a good idea to write down the Tanya and bring it to the masses, kind of like writing the Talmud down, well many Chasidim thought it should not be given to the masses and hence started the beginning of the end for the Lubbies.
So here are some of my own thoughts on Lubavitchers, lets say though this is probably inflated, that ¼ of all Lubbies are Meshichist. Well that means that ¾ of them all are out there on the front lines bringing in Jews of all backgrounds to participate in things they didn’t even know existed, and maybe one day these Jews will become Torah observant and marry Jews and have Jewish kids. Now please tell me what could be better. I don’t see any other organizations willing to send out families to the middle of nowhere to try and bring some sort of Judaism to folks in places like Montana or Alaska. Yes other Kiruv organizations do great things, but none are as far reaching as Chabad. No other orthodox groups go to college campuses to try and give students some of whom are orthodox a Friday night meal or a learning event. Why don’t yeshiva’s like Chofetz Chaim, or Ner Israel etc.. have any sort of events. It is true that number one problem facing Jewish communities today is an over 50% rate of intermarriage, it just unnerves me that all these other folks who are probably members of some Jewish organizations will go on bashing chabad, when they fail to do anything close to the work they do. Oh but they brainwash and want people to be like them etc…you may say, well fine wouldn’t you rather have a bunch of Lubavitchers than a bunch of secular Jews intermarrying and having non Jewish children? Listen to what you people are saying, since you do not like Lubbies and a few meshichists and maybe the way they shove lulavim in your face- you would rather Jews be lost than found. I EXPECT SOME COMMENTS.
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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
I completely agree with you and am thrilled that someone has brought this subject to light.
A huge issue with modern day judaism is sinas chiman & the holier then thou, judgemental attitude that is everyhwere in the “frum velt”. That attitude is for people trying to feel better about their own shortcomings. A happy & self confident person doesn’t concern himself with what others are doing (or doing “wrong”.) The attitude is a complete turnoff & the opposite of what a Jew should be like. The Lubav’s are the only group who truly practice the idea of loving every Jew & seem to leave the judging up to Hashem. Thank G-D for them!
All lubavitchers have ahavas yisroel? What about people outside lubavitch? All of them have sinas chinom?
The reason why some yidden allow themselves to hate Lubavitchers (or any other Jews) is that they don’t practice ahavas yisroel in a conscious way or that they don’t know about Julius Caesar’s dictum “Senatori boni viri et Senates mala bestia est” (“Senators are nice guys but the Senate is an evil beast” — i.e., hate the organization, not the individual members). I guess the idea of expressing ahavas yisroel to Lubavitchers looks to some people like bringing snow to Eskimos (coal to Newcastle etc.).
On the other hand, the actual reason for hatred is a little more complicated, but still overall simple. It’s the reason why some goyim hate yidden, why people in humanities and social sciences hate people in hard sciences, why psychologists hate neuroscientists and why people that don’t know Math hate the people that do. Whenever you have a minority, the majority will dislike it just for being a minority. The dislike will increase if the minority is actually proud of it being different, carries out its differences as if they made it special, etc. The dislike will hit the roof if the minority has an elitist air about it. Minor factors like neophytes converting to the ranks of the minority when exposed to it make things worse (any psychologist when exposed to biology of the brain will become a neuroscientist; any X-ian that studies 1% of authentic Yiddishkeit will either convert or become a Ben Noach; many BTs and even frum yidden — not all of course — that actually take an effort to study Chassidus will become Chabad).
At the same time that Chabad carries itself with an air of hashkafik superiority (“any frum derech is a good derech to Hashem, but our derech is the deepest one”), Lubavitchers practice great ahavas yisroel to all Jews, which makes it all the more maddening and confusing. So, most people just invent superficial reasons that don’t make much sense really: “I hate them because they try to make other Jews more observient” (what?) … “I hate them because they believe their Rebbe is a Moschiach” (besides the fact that it is not a problem halachikally, as any person who actually studies the topic beyond the surface will discover, most Lub-s don’t even believe that… besides, what about hatred before 1994?). This is like social scientists saying that physicists only know formulas and don’t really understand what the formulas mean. (Does anyone actually believe that?)
Now, besides the question of whether it actually makes sense to hate someone just for their elitist air (even if one disagrees with it), much less to hate a Jew, one must ask a question: have I tried to find out why they believe their derech makes more sense? Why do they treat misnagdim like they are not seeing forest beyond the trees? Why do they wear crushed hats? An intelligent person must find it hard to believe that a group which cares about essence so much must be so hitzoiniustik. Something’s up…
By the way, one of the reasons Lakewood dislikes Chabad is that the previous Lub. Rebbe said that anyone who does not study yesodei of Torah (i.e., Chassidus) in our times delays Moschiach. Which made some people upset, I guess.
(I am not a Lubavitcher myself. I am, however, a neuroscientist.)
Okay so I know your post is almost a year old, but I would like to offer my opinion as a Lubavitcher, and if you’re the only one who’ll read it, fine. First of all, thank you for recognizing that one more BT Lubavitcher is better than one more frei Yid married to a shiksa. (Why that should even have to be pointed out, I’ll never know.)
As far as the elitist thing, I just want to share with you a view that a brother-in-law of mine, a shliach for 35 years in a college town, has to say about that. Basically, by choosing any particular derech, everyone is expressing some kind of elitism. If you don’t think your derech is the best, why are you on it? If you thought Bobov does it better, you’d be a Bobover. If you thought Lakewood does it better, you’d move to Lakewood. And if you’re in Lakewood, there’s a good chance that it’s because you really believe that this is the most fulfilling expression of Yiddishkeit in the marketplace, or you wouldn’t be there.
Personally I think living with an attitude of being “on shlichus,” whether I technically am or not, gives chayus to my life as a Jew, because I’m aware of both trying to bring a little Yiddishkeit to those around me, and knowing that I may be the only frum Yid someone knows, which means I have to be the right kind of example. And I do believe that learning Chassidus and learning the writings etc. of the Rebbeim brings a perspective that I can’t get anywhere else, which, FOR ME, brings a more fulfilling experience in my daily life. But just as our whole chinuch system is beginning to recognize that not every bochur has the zitzfleish for gemara from morning till night, yet can be kept on the derech by finding out what he does koch in and making it available to him, I think that all these different ways of being frum exist because there are as many different temperaments as there are Yidden. We all want to do the right thing, but what’s the right way for one isn’t for another. If it’s got Shulchon Oruch behind it, it’s cool.
I don’t think every Jew has to become a Lubavitcher, any more than I would think every goy has to become a Jew. The Rebbe never said, Go out on shlichus and make more Lubavitchers. He said, Go out on shlichus and remind more Yidden that they have a neshama. Make them b’simcha in their Yiddishkeit. In fact, on many occasions, including in specific instructions to shluchim I know, he said, Leave my name out of it if it will complicate things. Use your judgment. It’s not about Lubavitch, it’s about mitzvahs. Ahavas Yisroel. Ahavas chinam. It’s the only solution. Love your fellow Jew. Just because.
You almost made me cry. You expressed the essence of all this issue.
Hey Devorah thank you for that amazing comment- it is definitely appreciated and hopefully some others will read it, I may even post it up on the main site to get the discussion going.
wow first time im REALLY impressed by a comment on ANY jewish topic what a smart girl…
just to add my 2 cents
lubavitchers are stuck in between every other jewish lifestyle out there: its chassidish,modern,intelligent,well connected,orthodox,friendly,open
for many its too much to accept its just doesnt make sense that its all for real and working and they’re even proud of it !!!! many react with animosity especially those with the lowest IQ…
to be frank where i live nobody critics chabad they love it too much and chabad is so central to jewish life….they cant afford it these days ………
(out of the topic,dvorah you’r a dream girl…)
Hey I am proud to say that most of my commenters are ladies and they do a fine job some of the time.
A criticism sometimes made of Chabad is that those who they draw closer to observance are not provided with a realistic picture of what is required to follow an observant lifestyle. The objection is that they don’t make people aware of the things they still need to change in their lives. Chabad is sometimes described as making too little demands on those they see want to integrate themselves more fully into the frum lifestyle. It is not that Chabad discourages study or growth; it is that, or so the argument goes, they are happy enough if you take on the some of the halachot. The implication is that someone who is newly frum by Chabad standards is not frum at all by anyone else’s. A couple that wants their children to be acceptable marriage candidates in the frum world would need to move farther to the right, so to speak, than they are now. I can’t say whether this criticism is valid or not, but it appears to be so from my limited exposure to Chabad BTs. They just don’t get the support and direction they need to pass in the larger frum world.
The above is not to suggest that Chabad shluchim are not the real deal when it comes to halachot. It is that it appears that they are satisfied to get you to a certain stage, and then will move on to the next person needing assistance.
Dovid,
So your criticism is that the Lubavitch take Jews who may observe no ritual commandments and move them to a place where they observe some, but perhaps not all, of the ritual commandments.
How, precisely, is this a bad thing? So long as they are not lying about their observance for shidduchim, we now have Jews who are more involved as Jews.
I wonder what the relationship is between Lubavitch and the non-orthodox movements from a lubavitch point of view. In my experience, the only conflicts come in the “competition” for members, but I have never heard a conservative rabbi complain that a congregant was becoming “too observant”.
Thanks for this post, frum satire (how many names do you go by??).
About what Devorah said–actually, we do want everyone to learn chassidus as Moshiach answered the Baal Shem Tov that he will come when his (the Besht’s) ” wellsprings will spread forth”.
Re “Chabad carries itself with an air of hashkafik superiority (â€any frum derech is a good derech to Hashem, but our derech is the deepest oneâ€)”
Uh yea. Chassidus is the deepest part of torah. What’s the question? It’s the innermost explanation. The core. The secrets.
its cute that ppl are impressed by devorah…
what is impressive that she is expressing herself well here but what she says is straight out of (girls) farbrengen and every chassidish lubavitcher girl can/does say these very words! good luck
Do you know where did Devorah studied? I’d like to send my two girls to that school!!!