Re: NYC to light World's Largest Menorah

On Dec 6, 8:55 am, i...@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
why not make it any height? Tir'u baTov!
-------------------
I jumped in with this height business to gently criticize Chabad,
l'shem shamayim.

Why criticize Chabad? Because there may be Yidden unlearned in Shas
and poskim who think "If ultra orthodox Chabad is doing it, then it's
the right (i.e. k'halacha) way". So Chabad may be guilty, here and in
other cases, of meechshol leefnay eever, putting a stumbling block
before the blind.

The intent is to get Jews to think about Chanukkah and Judaism rather
than ignoring it and setting up a xmas tree, er, I mean, a "Chanukkah
bush" at home.

Chabad also does this in other ways. They daven late, they eat where
they daven. They also seem to like to build Chabad houses so they're
not easily walkable to, so people will drive there and be m'challel
shabbat and yom tov.

They often put the Chabad house where there is no established Jewish
community, such as the new one in Spokane. It's a situation where the
Jews in the city are so scattered that it doesn't matter where they
build -- few will be able to walk. That's also why they made it large
enough for a lot of people to sleep over on Friday night. It's not
done with the hope that people will drive there, but, rather, so that
people will come, learn, and become more observant. The alternative in
many cases is to let people remain secularized and detached from
Judaism and from the Jewish community at large. They don't intend to
replace existing shuls; rather, to supplement them and draw more Jews
back to observance.

Eliyahu
.

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