SYDNEY BRIAN SHEFTS
Illovo, Johannesburg
The Lubavitchers are not really part of South African Jewry. They are an import. It is not true that the Lubavitchers saved South African Jewry from disintegration. The late Lubavitcher Rebbe encouraged South African Jews to stay in the country.
The erroneous conclusion that a great many Jews came to, is that every Jew should become a Chassid. The Lubavitcher Rebbe had special powers that he used for a good purpose, but if he believed that every Jew should become a Chassid, he was mistaken.
In fact, a Lubavitcher rabbi in a speech said that if every Jew would become a Chassid, the Moshiach would come. He was mistaken; if every Jew will become a Chassid, Moshiach will run away.
The majority of South African Jews are descended from Lithuanian Jews. We should be proud of our Lithuanian Jewish heritage, and some South African Jews who are not of Lithuanian Jewish descent admire the Lithuanian Jewish minhag.
The Lithuanian Jews were famous for their Torah learning. They were rationalists while the Chassidic movement never caught on because it was a mystic movement.
The Lithuanian Jewish yeshivas were the best in the world. There was the Slabodka Yeshivah, the Ponoviz Yeshivah, the Telz Yeshivah and many others. The teaching and learning Torah in Lithuania became famous all over the world.
The Lithuanian Jews produced many rabbis. There was the Vilna Gaon and the Chofaitz Chayim who wrote a book against lashon hora and who was not a Chassid and there was the Dubner Maggid and many others.
A rabbi who came from a Lithuanian rabbinical family – the Soloveitchiks – came to South Africa and taught at the Kollel. There was also the ethics movement – the Mussar Movement – of Rabbi Israel Salanter,
In Israel when they wanted to study a great Jewish community whose books should be read, they chose the Lithuanian Jewish community.
The Chassidim were going away from Torah and the Mitnagdim (who were opponents of the Chassidim and who were from Lithuania) brought them back. The majority of Lithuanian Jews were Misnagdim; the Chassidim were a minority.
The Mitnagdim were the learned Jews; the Chassidim were the ignorant ones. Of course there were some execptions.
There is a strong element among the Lubavitcher Chassidim who are only interested in turning Jews into Chassidim regardless of what their original minhag was. This is wrong.
Before the Holocaust there were 250 000 Lithuanian Jews; only 30 000 survived the Holocaust. The Lubavitchers then converted them into Chassidim; they had no right to do that.
ChabadGirl
Jul 10, 2014 at 6:00 am
‘Posted on behalf of the user -ED:
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\nI’m not sure why we have this kind of targeted assault on any affiliation of orthodox Jewry.
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\nAs someone who is baalat teshuva, I’ll add that from the moment I first set foot in a synagogue; Chabad of Fourways I felt welcomed, not intimidated. The Rabbi and the community there ignited something with in me, that remains a fire within. Some at the Beth Din and UOS did the same, and I’m grateful. That
\ncontinued even when I joined a new community in Savoy.
\nI’m not suggesting that other synagogues and affiliations may have treated me any worse or better, but I do think Hashem put me precisely where I needed to be on that very first day I walked into a synagogue of my own free will and determined to take my place as on of his tribe once more.
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\nI’m a Jew first, and I’ve learned over these last few years that no differences should be allowed to divide us.
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\nRegards (The lesser spotted) Chabadgirl
‘
Choni
Jul 10, 2014 at 7:46 am
‘So nice to hear from you again. How you been?’
Jew For Cholent
Jul 11, 2014 at 4:16 am
‘What a badly formulated argument and badly written article.
I think you should spend your time learning how to be receptive to all forms of Judaism including those who are Gastronomically Jewish.
Perhaps we’ll send you on a crash course on Sociolgy,Jewish History and Jewish Cooking.
This article has made me laugh at it’s puerile content and I thank you for keeping me smileling.
Next week I would like you to discuss the contribution of The Neo Hassidic Existentialists to Johannesburg sport.
‘
Akiva
Aug 11, 2014 at 1:17 pm
‘I must ask you, why is it that you mention the Chofaitz Chayim and his writings on loshen hara, but in the same letter, you are speaking loshen hara?
Loshen hara is dangerous, and the powerful consequences of speaking loshen hara which have caused such destruction to Jews and the Jewish world (The destruction of the temples) etc, yet we still go on and speak loshen hara?
Please read the Hilchos Lashon Hara and guard your tongue.’