The parallels between the rise of Early Christianity and what is going on in some factions of Chabad is well known and has been extensively written and argued about by people with more knowledge that I have.

What is less known because it is maybe just beginning is the weirdish cult-like following starting behind Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin. It's one ( Read more... )

One funny article here. Rabbi Ashkenazi from Kfar Chabad has run out of options to solve The Tznius Crisis and so now he will take pictures of immodest women and have his wife (of course) review the photos and speak to the young ladies in question.

Yeah. The comments are split down the middle, with about half thinking this is the best idea since ( Read more... )

No time to write much, studying for the bar and packing for the move is taking up all of my time.

But just recently I was trying to find something about bechira on chabad.org and came across this speech that the Rebbe apparently gave to a group of college students in the 60s. It's all pretty standard except for this appalling part:

Question: One ( Read more... )

I am moving and studying for the bar.

So... not a lot of time, but please enjoy this thread, I don't know why I didn't see it earlier.

In case they delete the link, a high school girl is asking if she should think of the Rebbe first thing in the morning and thank him for everything she has. Apparently, she was at a farbrengen and there was a ( Read more... )

From the Gospel of Matthew:

[18] Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.
[19] Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily.
[20] But while he ( Read more... )

This article raised many questions for me.

Sending your kid away at 6 years of age? So he can get a Jewish education? How does that work?

I mean, I'm not one of these crunchie mommies who think all children should be breastfed and homeschooled until they are 20, really I'm not.  Still, sending  all your kids away at  age 6 seems extreme. At that ( Read more... )

Here's a YWN thread in which the idea that  "a Jewish child molester is on a higher level than Mother Theresa"  finds acceptance.

Lest you think that this opinion is one shared by a small, fringe group of nutjobs, almost every single self-identified Lubavitcher I have ever met espoused this idea without reserve. Here is one example. Chabad is far ( Read more... )

Which one suprises you the least?

1. A chabad website publishes a letter  from a non- chabad woman describing how she was called a whore in a parking dispute in Crown Heights. The commenters respond by saying that if she is going to judge Judaism by the Jews, clearly she's unfit to begin with or just making excuses for her lack of observance.

One ( Read more... )

I'm really happy that someone finally wrote an article about the very important topic of tznius at the Rebbe's Ohel.

Because if there's any place that gets the hormones flowing and the unchaste passions stirring, it's for sure a holy rabbi's gravesite.

I don't even understand how anyone is expected to have any self control the way things are now, ( Read more... )

Last week, our 14 year old sensitive and gentle son came into my car crying because a teacher pinched and humiliated him in front of an entire school of over 200 kids and staff . And his crime? For not standing up for ashrei at mincha quickly enough.

Miraculously, our boy doesn't blame the Aibershter and is still happy to daven mincha.

Later that ( Read more... )