The closest Jews?

This afternoon I finished reading "Off the Derech" by Faranak Margolese and reported back to my chavrusa (him of the bovine persuasion). He asked me to sum up the book in one sentence, and I said, "If Lubavitch practiced what it preaches then virtually no Lubavitcher would ever go frie and many more people would be frum." It's funny, because a large part of the problem is people who think they're better than other people. So why am I saying what I'm saying? Because I think it's true. All the problems Mrs. Margolese describes in the book are theoretically not problems in Lubavitch. I say theoretically because of course we do the same stupid things everyone else does. Heck, I do the same stupid things everyone else does. So what's the solution? As Barack Obama says, "Change we can believe in." The fundamental difference between the change our president wants and the change the Jewish world needs is that A. We know what we want (or at least we should), and B. We know how to get there.

What is it that we want for ourselves and our children? A world where people want to be Jewish and work hard to be Jewish. Too often we're missing one or both of these factors. If this isn't what we, as committed (in some way, shape, or form) Jews, want for ourselves and our children, then that needs to be worked on.

How do we get there? We work hard at fixing our faults and following the words of our sages. This means, for starters, internalizing Perek Lamed Beis, applying it not only to the Jew we find on the street but also to the Jew in our shul, our classroom, and most importantly, our home. Unconditional love may not be the answer to all our problems, but it sure can solve a lot of them. Actually, that's not true. The temple was destroyed because of baseless hatred. It'll be rebuilt because of baseless love. I'm not saying anything new here; unfortunately, I'm also not saying anything that doesn't need to be said.

You know, it's really not so easy to love every Jew as yourself. In fact, it's downright difficult. A lot of times Jews do things to you that are really not nice. If it was just anybody behaving badly we'd be able to shrug it off with a "what can you expect from a shikere goy?" (not that I condone such language or thought processes). However, when a Jewish person, particularly a "frum" person, behaves despicably, we condemn not only him but the G-d he so badly represents. It's very difficult to love such a person. Yup. And yet? You got to do what you got to do.
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OK, enough serious shtuff for once. Seems like this whole week I've been posting serious shtuff. Crazy.

As everyone by now probably knows, there were a fair amount of negative comments about my 27 Adar post which ended up on crownheights.info. I didn't respond on the posting itself because I didn't want to waste my time, but I figure that I might as well now.

First of all, if I had known it was going to be posted on there I would have removed the Lipa Schmeltzer thing. It's cute, and everyone here gets it, but the uneducated rabble outside doesn't.

Also, I would have insisted that the title be in Hebrew, and would have changed it to the correct passuk, "Yesomim hayinu, v'ain av," Eicha 5,3, and hopefully people would have responded to it better. The first time I saw that passuk used in this context was the front cover of the Kfar Chabad immediately following Gimmel Tammuz 5754. I was shocked to see it, expressing many of the same feelings people expressed here and there, but I soon recognized that A. It's a passuk, and B. Makes a lot of sense. Obviously the Rebbe is found more down here than before Gimmel Tammuz. And just as obviously, the Rebbe is not here. A dichotomy? Perhaps. But I don't know if you can be a believing Lubavitcher without these two incontrovertible (for a Lubavitcher) facts.

And no, I'm not depressed, and I do believe in Moshiach. Thank you.

Now, onto the criticism of "the immortal Lipa Schmeltzer". I resent whoever it was who suggested that I was not utterly sincere in my quoting of him, and using that title. All right, obviously I'm being minorly facetious, but still. I'm a huge fan of the guy, and I think he's done more for Jewish music than anyone since the eighties versions of MBD and Avraham Fried. This is of course another huge discussion, and one which I categorically refuse to partake in right now. Sorry.