Thursday, May 31, 2007

Misnagdim and Chabad

One thing that I will never understand is the fighting that goes on between Misnagdim, Litvish, Yeshivish and Chabad. All of the groups mentioned have many problems with Chabad. I can completely understand why people would have problems with Chabad. I am personally not a Lubavitcher because i recognize that many of their customs are different and everything they do is not in touch with mainstream Judaism. At the same time I appreciate what they do and realize that even though they may be different they base everything they do on the Torah and have their sources for everything even though it might not be excepted by everyone. With that in mind, I want to ask the following question. If people have all these problems with Chabad and going around saying you cant eat there food or trust the heckshers or anything else how do you explain the following:
1. Most Italian wines under the OU are supervised by Rabbi Garelick who from my understanding is a Lubavitcher.
2. Almost everyone eats Rubashkin meat which is owned by a Lubavicher
3. Most of the Shochtim from Empire are Lubavichers
4. OK is one of the biggest Kashrus companies in the country which certify popular products such as Tropicana and Snapple and the office is located in Crown Heights.
5. Whenever someone goes on vacation in a not so Jewish place there is always a Chabad house that is there to help them when they need it.

Those five things are only a small examples of the hypocrisy i see with people who have problems with Chabad. When they are home they have no problem using "Chabad" products and when they are on vacation have no problem visiting a Chabad house. If you really have a problem then stand by what you believe in and don't use Chabad and bad mouth them at the same time. To top it off Avraham Fried is probably the most popular Jewish music artist and he is a Lubavitcher. If people have a problem with Chabad why is it OK to listen to his music?

I don't have answers to these questions since i don't understand why this occurs. If someone can explain to me why its ok to act like that please comment but all i see is hypocrisy. I want to restate that i am not a Lubavitcher just someone who doesn't understand how they can be attacked yet used at the same time.

Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach and the Amshinover Rebbe

This is a great Rebbe video

Satmar Chasuna in Williamsburg 5-27-07

I did not know Satmar sings Yechi also

Kaliver Rebbe from Israel

The following video is very inspirational and I hope that anyone who watches this video will be moved. Its a long video so I could not post it properly on the blog but i am going to attach the link so people can watch it from google

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8670278895774106144&q=kaliv

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Welcome to a new blog

I wanted to welcome my good friend Rabbi Seth Nadel to the blogosphere. He is posting his Dvar Torahs on this blog which can be found here. I hope people will enjoy his words of Torah and be inspired.