When will this troll be banned. He keeps posting the same thing over and over. Is there any good in anything which he has written? He has copied and pasted vast volumes of a topic which everyone is aware of. Either you accept this guys interpretation, or you reject it. I personally am in the camp which rejects his complete opinion based on my experience with Chabad Rabbis. I think all here at JTF are aware of the conflict and can decide for themselves how to proceed.
I think this thread should be locked, or the troll banned...
The problem is not the Rashab's ruling that you do not have to wash for Shalosh Seudos. Many poskim hold like that. And the Rebbe Rashab is fully entiteld to hold like them. But the Lubavitcher Rebbe said something totaly different.
Although the Lubavitcher Rebbe agrees with the rashab that you do not have to wash for shalosh seudos, he, on top of that, concocted out of thin air a totally against Halachah reason for it.
Namely, not that the poskim who hold not to wash are the majority, or the greater ones, or they have the most valid arguments, but rather, the reason not to wash is that Lubavitcher Chasidim should copy the behavior of their previous Rebbes, who could not eat because they were so "flying" spiritually during shlosh seudos that they couldnt bear to be invovled with a physical activity such as eating. The idea that the need to mimic their Rebbe for no reason creates a Halachic instruction.
It is that REASONING, that misguided interpretation of what creates Halachic instructions, the misinterpretation of what a Rebbe-Chosid relationship is, the entire twisted notion that is the problem. Not the not washing.
If a Rebbe cannot eat, then he is patur perhaps, like a choleh. But if the Talmid or Chosid is nto a choleh, he must eat. The Lubavitcher Rebbe admits that the only reason the previous Rebbes didnt eat is because they were like a choleh so they could not.
But we can. Making believe youre a choleh is not a reaosn to determine halachic issues one way or the other.
But in chabad, the robotic, blind, meaningless imitating of the Rebbe is whats important.
That's the problem.
The problem is that the Lubavitcher Rebbe holds that imitating the outside, chitzonius actions of your Rebbe is not only important, but is important enough to determine Halachic practice, namely, which poskim to follow.
Therefore, he says that since certain Rebbes could not eat because they were considered like Cholim (sick people), the Chassidim should all follow the poskim that say not to eat (i.e. wash) thereby appearing like peopel who are considered like sick people (i.e. the Rebbes) and therefore somehow are "following in the derech" of their rebbes.
Not only is this reasoning unacceptable as a reason to follow Halachic opinion A over B, but it is totally against the tradiitons of Chasidus, and is a perfect example of how Chabad has twisted Chasidus into a laughable caricature of what it once was.
Only Chabad does this. And only today's Chabad. Real Chasidus does not mean imitating the outer actions of your Rebbe, and real Halachah does not mean that such imitation should dfetermine Halachic practice.
In real Chasidus, the way it was practiced everywhere and still is except in Chabad, such empty, chitzonius imitation of Rebbes are criticized as stupidity and a twisting of the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov. In Chabad, what the great Chasidic masters considered "stupidity", the Lubavitcher Rebbe considers "chasidus".
The Satmar Rebbe ZT"L told this story after he once accidently came to the Pesach seder and made Kiddush without his shtraimel on. When he realized he forgot his shtraimel he asked the Chasidim why nobody told him he wasnt wearning his shtraimel.
They asnwered that they thought that for sure the Rebbe has a reason for it. He said no, he didnt, and told them the story of the Saraf ZY"A to show how simple Chasidim can sometimes imitate a Rebbes outside behavior without a reason, which is wrong.
This nonsense is what has become "Chassidus" in Lubavitch.
And worse, this nonsense has not only become Chasidus, but Halachah too. This is what decides which poskim to follow regarding shalosh seudos.
That is the problem.