LUBAVITCH-----shalosh seudos

MODERATOR Posted - 19 June 2001 19:33

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Regarding Seudah Shelishis, the following comes from "Vedibarta Bam", on the Laws of Bentching according to Minhagei Chabad, by Rabbi Moshe Bogomilsky, page 24,25:

"Question: Why are Chabad Chasidim not stringent about eating a full meal with challah for the third meal, and suffice with just tasting some food?

"Answer: ... However how does one satisfy the stringent ruling of the Alter Rebbe ...that bread should be eaten at the meal?

"The purpose of eating tasty food on Shabbos is strictly to experience "oneg" - delight. If eating, however, is detrimental to a person's health he does not have to agonize himself to eat ... Hence, one who has reached the level at which he truly feels the exalted spiritual aura during the time of the third meal ... to such a person, eating is a tzar - agony - and he accomplishes his delight by refraining from eating.

"The Rebbes of Chabad 'felt' the spiritual light which shines during the time designated for Shalosh Seudot and therefore refrained from eating. Consequently, the Chassidim who are attached to them follow in their footsteps".

Now this is totally against Halachah. If someone for some reason finds it agonizing to eat that's one thing, but to say that the Chassidim who do NOT find it agonizing to eat are exempt anyway since they follow in the ways of their Rebbes is a typical example of putting the demand to imitate the Rebbes above Halachic obligations. If the rebbe was sick and didn’t eat, would the Chasidim be entitled not to eat?

Or if the Rebbe was sick on Yom Kippur and did eat would the Chassidim be allowed to eat on Yom Kippur b/c the rebbe is sick?

So if the Rebbe finds it agonizing to eat Shalosh Seudos (which incidentally, other Tzadikim did eat even though they were on this level, since on Shabbos, eating becomes Ruchniyus not Gashmiyus), does that exempt the Chosid?

Only if imitating the Rebbe - a monkey-like imitation, since you are not emulating his level but merely mimicking his actions that he did for reasons that do not apply to you - is more important than fulfilling the obligation that hashem in his Torah put on you does this make any sense.

Now in this particular instance, the results are not as bad as not sleeping in the Sukkah, since there are legitimate poskim that permit not washing. But the bigger problem is the WAY they got to not washing - the Hashkafa that being "like" the Rebbe makes them think that they are fulfilling the Alter Rebbe's psak to wash. So here you have it again: The twisting of the Rebbe-Chosid relationship to something it was never intended to be.