8:00pm: Yechi and Meshichism; Activism vs. Avodah; Integrity in Applying Chassidus

This week’s edition of MyLife: Chassidus Applied with Rabbi Simon Jacobson, Episode 46, will air tonight, Sunday, here on CrownHeights.info beginning at 8:00pm. This week Rabbi Jacobson will address the following topics: Yechi and Meshichism; Activism vs. Avodah; Integrity in Applying Chassidus; and follow-up on Infertility, Special Children, and Prayer.

“I am so outraged and pained by the disagreements in our community – to the point of a split between factions? Is there any solution to this? Or do we just accept it?” “Since Gimmel Tammuz I feel uncomfortable walking into 770 and seeing all those signs on the walls. The shul seems to be controlled by radicals. Are my feelings legitimate or am I the one with the problem?” Are there indeed different opinions in Chabad about Moshiach? What about the saying of “yechi?” How does one find clarity amidst the different perspectives?

Tune in this Sunday night, December 7, when Rabbi Jacobson will tackle these controversial topics. We all know that there is nothing worse thanmachlokes, and we know how much the Rebbe was disturbed by it. So what is the best approach to conflicts within our community?

Other topics to be addressed in tonight’s episode are activism versus avodah: Did the Rebbe “shift” the focus of Chabad from internal work, personal refinement, learning and davening to working with others? Also, when teaching and applying Chassidus to our lives, how do we assure that we remain true to the original? Is there even room to add our own understanding and applications? Additionally this episode will follow-up on topics addressed in episode 45 – infertility, autism and special children, as well as different prayer methodologies.

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. To have your question addressed, please submit it atwww.meaningfullife.com/mylifelive.

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

  • The revolutionary words expressed this week 23 years ago
  • Conflicts
  • Yechi and meshichism
  • Activism vs. avodah pnimis
  • How to daven – follow-up
  • Autism and special children – follow-up
  • Infertility – follow-up
  • Chassidus Applied: True to the original or one’s own ideas

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.

6 Comments

  • I remember when it started

    Rabbi Jacobson says he doesn’t know where the label Meshichsitin comes from. I do know.I clearly remember certain people from that camp, shortly after Gimmel Tamuz, standing up in 770 and declaring that THEY and THEY alone were bringing Moshiach, (anyone who did not fall into their camp was fighting the Rebbe, as they said many times) and they labelled themselves the Meshichistin. They started the machlokes. The Rebbe was totally against labels.

  • Emes is Emes

    On the issue of “Yechi and Meshichistim” this was a complete and utter disappointment. With regard to these issues R’ Jacobson presented neither the Emes nor any clarity either philosophically or in anything remotely resembling an “applied” manner. Lubavitch will unfortunately continue to be filled with unending Machlokes among themselves and will continue to be a complete a laughing stock to the rest of the Jewish world. Twenty plus years since the Rebbe zt”l’s Histalkus and Jacobson and Lubavitch still are unable to face reality. Emes is Emes – and Sheker is Sheker.

  • good job R'SJ

    Rabbi Simon J did a fine job in explaining tolerance and respect and how we can be at peace with
    ea.other and yet have diff dayos; that people can do as they feel in their daled Amos and/or where it doesn’t affect anyone adversely in the public arena. There was no reason to degrade and nullify anyone or anything. There was reason to give the right perspective – the Torah perspective – €which he did well. What people need to begin to understand is that we will have differences and that will remain and it’s ok, so no reason for arguments. Then we need to know that Things have to be done b’oifen hamiskabel, in a manner acceptable to others, so as not to alienate people from learning chassidus chabad and not alienate people from darchei hachassidus. This was very much The Rebbe’s shita. So if one wants to scream Yechi at home, do so as much as and as high pitched as one wishes. However, in a public place, especially in a holy shul where there are all types of people, care has to be taken NOT TO ALIENATE ANYONE – NOT EVEN ONE SINGLE PERSON! – by chanting mantras & placing signs that will definitely alienate at least one or more visitors. G-d hears our whispers too. He is not a deaf G-d chas veshalom. So in a public place say all you want, but to yourselves! I will add, yes, there are those who are impressed with the Mantras, but they are not being alienated when the mantra isn’t proclaimed. It is for those who are alienated by these proclamations that they should NOT be stated begoluy nor should there be signs in our shul where we have visitors from all walks of life and from all over the world. Because it is offensive to many and causes undue loshon hara and distaste for Chabad chassidus in general, and chabad chassidim in particular, we should refrain from making a chilul Hashem and a chilul Chabad-Lubavitch. “V’oid” vehu haikor”: Stop the fighting! We are all bros. That is what Hashem wants of us and that is what our holy Rebbe expects of us.

  • #2

    Can you please spell out for us simple ones what exactly is emes and what is sheker?

    If you are going to criticize something let us all hear your alternative.

  • Emes is Emes

    Chabad once prided itself on being extremely scrupulous about striving to be “Emes L’Emito,” completely true – refusing to bend the truth even slightly even if doing so would mean gaining many more adherents to the movement (as in the tradition of how careful the Alter Rebbe was in writing the Tanya). Today however look how low things have degenerated, to the extent that ideas which are absolutely false and against the Torah, ideas which clearly and without question distance the overwhelming majority of Jews from Lubavitch, are nevertheless claimed to be true.

    While R’ Jacobson correctly says that chanting Yechi and identifying the Rebbe zt”l as Moshiach are not Mitzvos, nevertheless, by categorizing these activities as matters of Reshus, i.e., permitted, and based on Emes – when they are clearly Aveiros and forbidden, and founded on complete Sheker – he thereby practically condones all of these activities, and adds fuel to the fire to ensure that the Machlokes and the Chilul Shem Shomayim and Chlul Shem Lubavitch will continue for a long time to come.

    The only way out of this is to be completely honest and “call a spade as a spade.” The idea that the Jewish Moshiach will need a “second coming” after his death to complete his mission is inherently false and a violation of the Torah’s principles. Such an idea is absolutely foreign to Judaism and has been soundly rejected by Jews throughout the generations. The Meshichistim, R’ Jacobson included, have to repent completely from their very mistaken ways. Meanwhile more than twenty years have passed since the Rebbe zt”l was Niftar and they have not yet come to their senses. The damage they are doing continues to increase exponentially. It must be stopped.

  • Yisroel

    Saying something is sheker doesn’t make it Sheker, however many times you repeat it.
    If Moshiach comes and it won’t be the Rebbe then it will be sheker. Until then we do not know, but thereis adequate sources in Chassidus and Sichos of the Rebbe that are clear that the Rebbe embodies Moshiach.
    On the other hand there are no sources which negate the Rebbe being Moshiach – all talk of the second coming is irrelevant since there was no first coming. We can not know for sure who Moshiach will be, but everyone is entitled to believe what he believes.