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Tony Montana commenting to An ostensibly Chasidic worldview:
Schneur, I adapt my previous statement. You're right. The Shluchim of the lameds and even mems were not the only frumer Jews in town. But my point remains the same.
The first few waves of Shluchim were sent to set things up for further waves in the development of the Rebbe's vision (the one that Prof. Simon attributes to the Rebbe's reading of an Asimov novel). The predominant culture in Lubavitch (to be distinguished from the true chasidus) developed over the years into one of emphasizing the superficiality of what Shlichus entailed in the early days i.e.: setting up your own mosdos, cultivating gvirim, making new contacts, gaining acceptance in the community. So the fantasy of Shlichus became a romantic notion that this is what Shlichus is: to be a trailblazer, a pioneer. But that was merely the form that Shlichus took on, not the essence. The essence was bitul tzum Rebb'n, in whatever form that would take. But the masses bought into the form and made it an icon, held it out on a stick to motivate themselves and their children.
In dor shishi, mesirus nefesh meant not ratting out your friends even when the KGB smashed a bottle over your head and cut off your inyonim. In the lameds and mems, mesirus nefesh meant building mosdos from scratch on karka besula. In the nuns, and more so the samachs, mesirus nefesh means not being an egotistical megalomaniac who pronounces his independence from the corrupt system because he knows better what the Rebbe really wants. It takes a moiridikke bitul not to fantasize about overrunning those old Head Shluchim. But if you signed up for the job, remember, what you signed up for. YOU wanted to be the meshaleach's arm! You could have gone into business or gotten a degree. YOU volunteered. And I am sorry if your mashpi'im in yeshiva and your forty-five year old uncle from Florida with the tchup and tweed sport coat sold you a bill of goods. You should've read the Rebbe's sichos and found out what Shlichus really is. I blame your educators, but it's not an excuse you can carry through life. Shlichus was not invented so you could live in the suburbs and feel comfortable talking to women in pants about their personal problems.
And there are repercussions of this not just in the world of Shlichus but in aveidas HaSh-m as well. So many yungeleit did not apply themselves in yeshiva because they relied on this dream of "going out," assured that the title of shliach would suddenly uplift them into a metzius despite their lack of learning or avodah. Since the time they were head counselors in Gan Izzy, they had one thing on their mind, "In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king!" I will go out, be the only Lubavitcher in town and I will be the manhig, the adored mentor of my community. Now it's time for reality. You're sitting in kollel and fantasizing about having your own shetach to spread out in. And that ain't the reality. And they're heart-broken to discover (or in denial of the fact) that the times now demand a DIFFERENT kind of mesirus nefesh. The mesirus nefesh is now to get along, do your job, and concentrate on the neshomeis for which you're responsible (or even sometimes co-responsible).
You think this doesn't affect the quality of their work and clarity of their vision, all this pissing on fire hydrants to mark territory?! There's room for thousands of more shluchim! How many people work for Federations all over America? There's room for everybody! But you ain't gonna be the sherriff in town.
And as far as nepotism, I don't want to hear that charge. Open a Tzach list and go count all the non-gezha names of Shluchim. Ay, they aren't head Shluchim! Those jobs aren't open. But neither is building a secret mikveh in your cellar or running an underground yeshiva. You can wish all you want to have born in a different era, but it'll never be. If what you truly want is shlichus, then know what that means: NOT what they told you in Ohelei Torah farbrengens.
berl, crown heights: Tony, a very good articulation of Teiras Detroit. They should really hire you as their Propaganda Minister. However, your approach amounts to a one-sided utopia with the 'head sheluchim' getting a cart-blanch to abuse their 'hired help', treat them as glorified gofers and spit them out when they become too expensive to support (and like any good feudal lords, they get to bequeath the privileges of to their progeny). No yungerman should feel compelled to subject himself and his family to this kind of treatment. So let�s get it straight: the reason yungeleit want a sense of independence is not so much to assert themselves, but rather to shield themselves from this rampant abuse. Btw, telling young idealistic people that submission to this maltreatment is dem Reb�ns rotzein noch dertzu is just plain evil.
P.S. According to your Theory of Evolution of Mesirras Nefesh, what form does the mesirras nefesh of the Bosses take in this generation?
Tony Montana: So what do you suggest, Berl. Everyone should just do whatever the heck they want? I know that's what Prof. Simon believes and what Sholom Mendel Simpson believes and what the Kupchiks believe. But don't tell me honestly that that is what YOU believe. You're just frustrated with the system. Nu? Everyone is. So that's a reason for hefkeirus. Go take a walk down to the high school gym that was once 770 and tell me that self-management works.
I'm enjoying the ahavas-reyim-dikkeh banter, but I want to return to the issue. What do you do with an imperfect system that allows for abuses? Historically, when a political system becomes corrupt enough and the disenfranchised become desperate enough, you make a revolution. (BTW, whenever I am drinking Smirnoff, I often chuckle when reading "Purveyors to the Imperial Russian Court 1886-1917." I guess after being lined up and shot, you can't really drink vodka anymore.) Or, you can work within the system for change. There is never assurance that you'll work out all the kinks, but at least your not going through the whiplash of Thermidorian Reactions every twenty years. So you're faced with a choice: reformation or revolution? (TA, calm down, I can feel your nihilist streak getting aroused. "Trash the whole damn thing! Argh!") But let's examine the prospect of revolution analytically.
Historically, revolutions are generally not good. The Romanovs were replaced by Bolshevism. The Bourbons were replaced by Jacobeanism. And raboseinu nisieinu (l'havdil) are threatened with being replaced by Yellowism.
Now, to us good red-blooded Americans and naturalized citizens (k'ger k'ezroch), we sort of like the idea of overthrowing monarchies. Monarchies are bad, right? The only thing is that Yiddishkeit is a theocratic monarchy. Whether you're talking in the halachic sense, i.e.: a Davidic king or Exilarch of Babylon, or in the mystical sense i.e.: a Chassidic Rebbe. (BTW see the book by Yosef Heller - not Catch 22 - from pre-Gimmel Tamuz lifnei hatzimtzum where he suggests that there's not too much difference between the former and the latter).
So let's say you're fed up with the sovereign and his royal court. Let's say you're resentful that you were gezha and rich but never let into the official system. What do you do? Foment revolution. Don't worry. You won't have to fight. There will always be an endless supply of sefardic baalei teshuva with undiagnosed mental disorders and disgruntled CH balabatim who can't pay their mortgages and are nearly illiterate in two languages and wide-eyed, energetic teenage boys. Indoctrinate them; tell them this is what G-d wants. They will fight your revolution for you.
Indeed, like most revolutionary movements, you will need a powerful mystical message. The message will have to fuse new radicalism with a sense of homage for the nostalgic past. You'll have to convince the masses, some of whom are even intellectuals, that the new isn't really new. It's our historical destiny. In come the masters of indoctrination - disenfranchised intellectuals who either have an axe to grind or are just so blase they don't mind whoring themselves out for a little respect.
I fear the revolution and the brutality it would bring. When ch"v the last vestiges of the monarchy are laid to ruin, we will not be free, but quite the opposite.
Of course, chasidus is not a country. When the revolution comes, you can always just leave. But go where? A man without a country or home.
If you are discontent with the system, I beg you, demand reform. Hold the king's courtiers accountable. Make them answerable. But do not lay down for the awful revolution.
). I am going nuts over his music. Matisyahu? pleease...
Cover by Stephen Youll.
