The Lubavitcher Rebbe’s ‘Constructive Ambiguity’ on Chassidic Antinomianism
Let’s quote the first paragraph of the last Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Foreword to the biography (by Nissan Mandel) of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi:
The moral person must strive to bring his conduct in full harmony with his conviction; to live up to the standards of morality and ethics which he would like others also to adhere to. This is particularly true of the Jewish religious person, since the Jewish religion is a way of everyday life, and considers the deed – the actual conduct in the daily life – as the essential thing and the ultimate purpose of knowledge. The Chassidic philosophy goes a step further. While considering the deed essential, it demands that the deed be permeated with vitality and inwardness. Insisting that there can be no substitute for the actual fulfillment of duty, Chassidus insists at the same time that each action be animated; that the act have a “soul.” It is only on this level that a person can achieve true harmony in every aspect of his daily life, physical, emotional, and intellectual; harmony of all his “components” – his Divine soul, animal soul, and physical body, as well as harmony with the world in which he lives.
The words insistence and demand “at the same time” convey more than mere stressing or encouraging or reminding. As he writes explicitly, “The Chassidic philosophy goes a step further”, period.
And as we said before, since subjective values are imputed ordinally, going “a step further” must sacrifice the all-important deed
Also, unlike one who adds a parsha to the “unharmonious” Tefillin or a new stalk to the “soulless” Arba Minim, Chassidus adds something to every one of the mitzvos and minhagim we observe, passuling each, all the while slandering Sinaitic Judaism as lacking vitality and inwardness, and falsely limiting the original “deed” to mechanical action alone.
So, Chassidus (or Chabad Lubavitch, at any rate) is an antinomian schismatic breakaway from historical Judaism and lies about it, to boot.