8:00pm: Eating Light and Chabad Lite

This week’s edition of MyLife: Chassidus Applied with Rabbi Simon JacobsonEpisode 24, will air tonight, Sunday, here on CrownHeights.info beginning at 8:00pm. This week’s class will address the topic of ‘Chabad Lite,’ and whether it is a legitimate label to use.

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Dear Rabbi Jacobson,

I love learning Chabad Chassidus and consider myself Lubavitch. However, I trim my beard and don’t look like others on the street in Crown Heights. I’ve been told I am “Chabad-lite”. What does that mean? Is that a legitimate label?

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This episode will address questions around the so-called label “Chabad-lite.” Is this a legitimate classification? Did anyone even give us the right to classify anyone? How should we look at those who don’t fit the mold? Other topics are: What role does a healthy diet play in the life of a Chassid? Why is it acceptable to serve junk food at social functions and farbrengens when we know a healthy lifestyle is vital to our avodas Hashem? Should we supplement our child’s learning with limudei chol? Is there a “right way” to pursue a secular education?

Tune in this Sunday night for the next episode of MyLife: Chassidus Applied, which will address these sensitive and controversial issues. This hour-long dose of insight is meant to inform, inspire and empower us by applying the teachings of Chassidus to help us face practical and emotional challenges and difficulties in our personal lives and relationships.

The topics in this Sunday’s hour-long broadcast will include:

·        Is “Chabad-lite” legitimate?

·        Your diet: Role of health in the life of a Chassid

·        Can we supplement Yeshiva education with secular studies?

·        What is the right way to pursue a professional career?

·        Feedback on Rebbe edition

MyLife: Chassidus Applied addresses questions that many people are afraid to ask and others are afraid to answer. When asked about the sensitive topics he has been addressing, Rabbi Simon Jacobson commented, “I understand that the stakes are high, but the silence and lack of clarity on matters plaguing the community can no longer go unaddressed. The stakes of not providing answers are even higher.”

The on-going series has provoked a significant reaction from the community, with thousands of people viewing each live broadcast and hundreds of questions pouring in. At the root of every question and personal challenge tackled by the series is the overarching question: Does Judaism have the answers to my personal dilemmas?

In inimitable “Jacobson-fashion”, the broadcast answers people’s questions in simple, clear language while being heavily sourced. Each episode is jam-packed with eye-opening advice from the Rebbeim, gleaned from uncovering surprising gems in their letters, sichos and maamorim that address our personal issues with disarming relevance. Simultaneously, Rabbi Jacobson is able to crystallize a concept quickly, succinctly, and poignantly for any level of listener.

All episodes are immediately available for viewing in the MLC’s archive and can be downloaded as MP3’s for listening on the go.

Questions may be submitted anonymously at www.meaningfullife.com/mylifelive.

3 Comments

  • YMSP

    The quote is Emes LYaakov (in Kotointi) and it’s the opposite – the Alter Rebbe gave up 50,000 potential chassidim because Chabad “mont emes.”

    The problem today is that people won’t say straight what is right and what we don’t believe in.
    By having Reform rabbis speaking at events, without disclaimers that they are Reform rabbis (as was always the case before Gimel Tamuz, and was always done in a respectful way), having modern orthodox rabbis with shitos that are so far from Torah like Riskin speak. having pop psychologists who identify as “Chabad,” Chabad is being harmed and people who would come to the Emes can’t even find it. Is there anything sadder than that?

    No wonder he made such a mistake given the prevailing attitudes to give any speaker who comes near a podium in certain Chabad mosdois. The Rebbe was docheh Shlomo Goren bshtai yodayim because halacha was at stake. One needs to remember this when Riskin or some psychologist whose opinions are based on liberal pop-theology ask to speak. It does Chabad no favors and is a chilul Lubavitch to those who know better.

  • Get your hechsher! Jews soon 2 be certified by the OU?

    Maybe Number 1 can start a Lubavitch certification program. Something similar to a hechsher like OK or OU. If a Jew meets the minimum Lubavitch certification requirements you can give him or her a hechsher and all can say: “This is a real certified Lubavitcher” if he or she only meets part of the requirements, people can call him or her “Lubavitch light certified”

    Make sure EVERYONE knows of the official classification. Just like kosher food has a label (so people shouldn’t be confused chas v’shalom)
    apply a label on him or her indicating Lubavitch certification. If they don’t meet ANY requirements for the certification process, you can maybe label them a “Regular Jew” or even a “simple Jew” or even a “simpleton Jew”. Perhaps, (Depending on the situation” a “Satmar”. Again, don’t forget to apply appropriate labels so we all know.

    The label can be sewn into the clothing. It should be conspicuously displayed…..

    The certification process can start with a written test which should be based on teaching from the Alter Rebbe.. It should also have questions like: “how often do you go to Mikvah? How often do you put tefillin on other yidden? How often do you learn Chitas? Do you eat/drink cholov akum? Do you wear Rabbeinu Tam’s? Do you eat Cholent on shabbos? Do you tuck your shirt in? Do you comb your hair etc..

    • YMSP

      You don’t see a difference between accepting Jews vs giving a platform, without disclaimer, to Reform rabbis, or MO ones who make up their own religion?.