Where Is Chabad Heading?

Marvin Schick has an op-ed in yesterday's Jerusalem Post entitled "Where is Chabad heading?" Schick points out the degradation of halakhic observance so common to Chabad Houses today, and laments the lack of serious discussion within Chabad about this. He also notes the use of celebrities whose connection to Jewish-halakhic observance is often severely lacking. He points out that Alan Derschowitz, a key speaker at Chabad's shluchim (rabbi representatives) conference this year is a proponent of intermarriage.

I would add that Chabad's Crown Heights-based Jewish Children's Museum's annual fundraising dinner had the actor Jeff Goldblum as its honoree. Goldblum has been intermarried, is currently inter-dating with plans for marriage, has no connection to anything Jewish, told reporters he could not understand why he was honored because he had done nothing meritorious, certainly nothing Jewish, that would merit it.

And then we have US Senator Norm Coleman (R, MN), a kind and good man, who is very publicly married to a Catholic woman. Norm, when he was mayor of St. Paul, was honored with lighting Chabad's giant public menorah. I find it hard to believe the Rebbe would have allowed this.

I used to frequent a Chabad House where, on Shabbat, at least 1/3, and often much more, of the minyan drove to shul and parked in the shul parking lot. This was all done very publicly. The rabbi knew. Everyone else knew. And yet, every week the rabbi made sure to ask the same men to come. They all lived too far to walk. Two men used to drive in from 15 miles away on Shabbat morning, daven, eat cholent, and then drive home in the early afternoon. Without these men, Chabad had no minyan. It is this type of flagrant disregard for halakha that Schick is concerned with.

Over and over again, the halakhic standards enforced within the movement 20 years ago are falling by the wayside. When coupled with Chabad's messianism (a topic Schick does not even touch on), and its redefinition of Judaism as Rebbeism (and by this I mean the idea that everything done or believed is done or believed primarily because of the Rebbe, and good a person experiences comes from the active blessings of the Rebbe), one finds a dangerous situation. In many ways Chabad is like the Conservative movement, a neo-Orthodox grouping almost indistinguishable from Orthodoxy, with congregations made up of largely non-observant congregants but led by observant rabbis. But those early Conservative rabbis would not have asked Jews to drive on Shabbat to make their minyans, and they would not have honored intermarried Jews. (Those innovations came much later.) And the Conservative movement did not have a dead messianic figure.

It is this flagrant disregard for halakha that in large part endears Chabad to non-observant Jews. So little is expected of them other than affiliation. I have seen these Jews get aliyot on Shabbat and Yom Tov while wearing cell phones, with pockets full of change and car keys, and pens clipped to their shirt pockets. And these are not first-time visitors to Chabad.

As more and more non-observant Jews become connected with this new, post-Rebbe Chabad, Chabad moves further away from normative halakhic observance. Where will this all lead? In twenty years, maybe even less, America will have two viable Jewish movements – Reform and Chabad. Neither will be Orthodox as the term has been defined for the last 200 years. One of them will be humanist but moving toward tradition. The other will be messianic and moving steadily away from tradition. And where this will lead, nobody knows.

Comments

[Nachum]

Nothing against Coleman from me either, but he's been giving speeches about how much the New Testament speaks to him and how much he's learning from his Catholic wife and kids.

[martin]

Shmyra,
When you are not ranting and raving and write thoughtful pieces such as this, it raises your credibility.
Excuse my chutzpa.

[Nigritude Ultramarine]

Nice article, very insightful.

Excellent. What is outrageous is how Lubavitch is reacting to Schick's article. It seems that they have flooded the JPost site with comments attacking Schick (I wouldn't be surprised if various shluchim told their parishioners about it and asked them to react). That shows how phony their 'ahavas Yisroel' (love) is - when someone questions their path they attack him with such ferocity. It is encouraging to see people waking up and smelling the coffee about the danger of this fringe sect though. Sometimes a small group doing things in a non-mainstream way can be tolerated, but if it gets bigger and is threatening to displace normative Judaism, G-d forbid, it can be very dangerous.

[Ploni]

Lubavitch marketed this Moshiach nonsense very cleverly over a number of years. They started out low key and kept on advancing this apikorsus bit by bit over time until you have the present situation where the Rebbe is/was Moshiach. If the gedolim of the previous generation were alive they would collectively put the whole movement in Cheirem. But we are not zocheh to have any such leadership today.Everyone looks over his shoulder to see what the next "gadol's" position is before committing. This is what happens in the absence of strong moral leadership and which creates the ideal environment for a movement such as Chabad to thrive. I have experienced countless situations where non-religious Jews have commented to me that they think that Chabad are a bunch of kooks who badly need better grooming. This does not negate the good work they do. But the good work does not justify the apikorsus.Marvin Shick's article further illuminates the effects when one is selectively applies Halacha to suit their own agenda. There are no compromises in Halacha. 10,000 or whatever number of Chabad Houses notwithstanding. Do not get fooled by their marketing.

[Neo-Conservaguy]

"It is this flagrant disregard for halakha that in large part endears Chabad to non-observant Jews. So little is expected of them other than affiliation."

That's the basis of the Christian model: you "buy in" to redemption (the one-time sin-offering of Jesus) on the basis of faith and membership money rather than mitsvoth. Being a Jew, as my teacher says, is a verb.

[Neo-Conservaguy]

"In many ways Chabad is like the Conservative movement, a neo-Orthodox grouping almost indistinguishable from Orthodoxy, with congregations made up of largely non-observant congregants but led by observant rabbis."

OUCH! OUCH!! OUCH!!! THE PAIN! Shmyra, your Torah is too perfect and your mere sight is burning up both Chabad and the Conservative movement. Back to your cave, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai! ;-)

Common buddy, the Conservative movement is so freaking broad and has changed so much over the past century that it's hard to make any statement about it. Your comments are way off base for my shul (dozens walk on Shabbath, keep kosher homes. etc.), but are on target for many others.

Every Chabad house in this area, however, makes most of their minion with folks that drive. Hee hee. But the folks that attend those Chabad houses weren't attending other shuls, so are we sure it's better that they go back to shopping to catch the sales on Shabbath morning?

[Jath]

where are they heading ?

beer shachat !

[Jath]

actually for as long as i know them closely, twenty years now , i am under the impression that they are more comfortable in the company of non observant . because this is their trade , to urge non observants to do a little mitvalach here and there .
because they position themselves as purveyors of religion , they feel under pressure to hide or disqualify everybody else . a tremendous amount of chutzpa and lashon haraa goes in the process .
could be a rabbi ten times more learned and with more experience , they will tell u that his neshome is wanting .
they will tell you that unless you know tanya , you will never understand the fear of Gd. Funny how all the rishonim and those before them and the nevieem managed .
As to those not religious in their care , they are all sparkling diamonds , more so those with cash to spare .
It could be laundered money obtained by legal means or not .
It's their sparkling neshome that counts .
yiikes

Lubavitch thrives (preys) on the Jewishly ignorant. Note that in areas where Jews are well-educated Jewishly (like Haredi areas) their followings are correspondingly marginal or smaller.

They love-bomb ignorant Jews, feed them their fringe brand of Judaism, and sometimes even their dead Messiah. Sounds like certain other missionaries. Maybe some mean well, but it's definitely cause for serious concern.

Ironically, you blast Chabdnik's for defending themselves, claiming whatever happened to Ahavat Yisrael. Hypocrit, what ever happened to yours?

Ironically, you blast Chabadnik's for defending themselves, claiming whatever happened to Ahavat Yisrael. Hypocrit, what ever happened to yours?

[Koheleth]

I've never posted here, but I decided to in response to this post. I read this blog because I share Shmaya's concerns regarding Chabad and ultra-orthodoxy in general. But he's totally wrong in criticizing Chabad for tolerating non-Shomer Shabbat Jews. The reality is that welcoming non-Orthodox Jews reflects the historical NORM, and the current attitude of many Orthodox synagouges in shunning those who drive to shul is an abberation. For centuries in virtually the entire world, Jews lived in communities without distinguishing between Reform, Conservative, Orthodox etc. Some Jews were strictly observant, some weren't, but all went to the same shul and were welcomed as Jews. This was the norm in American Orthodoxy before the 1950s, when the black hatters started began their Mitzvah Olympics inquisition to ferret out heresy. It remains the norm in Sephardic communities -- where some members drive to shul, others go shopping or play soccer on Shabbat, but all are welcomed and tolerated by those more observant. Growing up, my Sephardic Rabbi once devoted his shiur on Shabbat to his attitude -- which I wholey agree with. He said "If they didn't drive to Shacharit, they would drive to the Mall. My place is to teach, not to criticize." It is a shame that Chabad's attitude, which reflects the historical norm, is not more widely followed amongst Ashkanazim.