See what I mean. The Gedolim have their fights, and they say things in their own way. The Great Rav Nachman from Breslev says that the simple Jews should stay away from the arguments between the Gedolim (and those who defile the brit- Brit Tefillin, Shabbat even more soo), and they would not be able to understand.
if it were the case, that you put rabbis on that high level, that we cannot understand their arguments.
Then that is a very good mechanism for allowing them to maintain their control, and push a cult like mentality.
I did read a book of chassidic stories that really imbued that mentality.. Of Gedolim being rude to each other for some reason relevant to the celestian spheres.. As soon as one of them stopped being rude to the other, the other died. That was a book of chassidic stories.. As they say "If you believe them all, of you believe nonem then you're are fool" But the point of these kind of stories is clear.. Don't question the gedolim, or Rebbe, they or he is on a higher level of thinking and spirituality.
I have seen something rather disturbing.. where a rabbi behaved in a way he shouldn't have towards a man in the congregation, not in a way that would make the newspaper, but just going way over the line.. And I looked around and saw the mentality of the people watching, staring daggers at the man as if to say subliminally "Do what the good rabbi says". That was a particularly weird synagogue.. I've never seen anything like that since. A normal shul/synagogue is one where some in the community don't like the rabbi, and some do. If everybody loves him, then it's suspicious..
I don't want to discuss the situation, suffice it to say, I have mentioned it to many people, and they agree it was weird, spooky, and really indefensible, and that I was right in my analysis..
That was a situation of a rabbi acts like a Rebbe, really abusing his power. Of course, Rebbes acting like Rebbes isn't as bad! But it's still problematic. There is no basis for such authority in the talmud. And these rabbis are not greater than talmudic rabbis.
Just because someone said things agains't Israel does not mean anything. I would probably beat that almost all Rabbis (that count) said things agains't Israel, but one has to know why they said it and for what purpose. For example those who were very religious had to hear from Rabbis agains't the secular entity, in order to be warned agaisn't getting too close to "their brethren", even though at the same time it is a Mitzva to get Jews religious and help them out, it is also bad a lot of times for the community to get too close to other communities and get its children to adapt the alien values of others. If this was not done, then their wouldn't be a Jewish nation today. Because the Jews would embrace everyone and every idea, (even though it has happened to a large degree).
This is really rabbis I don't like, playing psychiatrist.. Saying whatever they want just to emphasise something.
Youth rabbis will tell kids "If you do this, you get this carrott" And it works.. because most kids are dumb or immature.
And in mad cases, sometimes they threaten.. With
I have only heard of it once, though I am not in charedi circles
One rabbi I heard of, said something along the lines of "If you miss [he mentioned a mitzva here] then you're not jewish".
Complete nonsense of course, but it scared his students so much, that they all do the mitzva without fail.. Whereas others miss it often.
I personally, am not in favour of this dishonest manpiulative nonsense.
This making people do more mitzvot or be more religious by nook or crook..
There was actually an article in the jewish tribune, either this year or last year, that said it is ok to lie to people in kiruv(outreach!!). I don't know about the charedim, but fortunately, the big outreach organisations in britain (ohr, aish) don't do that, they are very intellectually honest, and even have their arguments up and in some cases have published responses from people that believe they are wrong.
But these mentalities do exist.. And it's dangerous.
I can well believe that the atmar rebbe hid information from his followesr that could have saved them.. Infact,,
here is a link, excuse the link's name
http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2008/05/the-satmar-rebb.htmlit has a short article about the satmar rebbe and this incident, and mentions a book called "Kasztner's Train" by Anna porter. I will have to read these things, perfidy, and the rest.. But I am aware of it.. I was less aware of the story regarding the satmar