[Avodah] Who First Said it?

[Zev Sero]

T613K at aol.com wrote:

> My father said that the Vilna Gaon's opposition had ultimately been very 
> good for chassidus, because it forced the chassidim to rein in their own 
> extreme, non-normative, anti-nomian elements, and to stay on the 
> straight and narrow (aka the strait and narrow).  Had the Vilna Gaon not 
> acted, it is quite likely that the entire chassidic movement would have 
> gone off the rails.

Well, that is, to use your own words, scurrilous nonsense.  If your
father thought that, then shame on him.


> The early chassidim had a lot of strange fringe 
> elements, and not all the reports that were brought to the Gaon's ears 
> were false.

Even the strange fringe -- Kalisk -- never broke halacha or showed
any signs of doing so.  They just behaved strangely, rather like the
stories about Novardok in its day.  And they were suppressed by the
Maggid without any prompting by the GRA.


> The story about "cutting off  the roots of his soul" -- that the Gra 
> would have converted to Christianity if not for the Ba'al HaTanya 
> -- is scurrilous nonsense.  Where do you get this stuff?

Start with Likutei Dibburim vol 2 p 516, Reshimas Hayomon p 177, 


R Micha wrote:
> For that matter, your father's sentiment about how the Gra saved
> Chassidus is also attributed to the Rebbe Rashab.

Attributed by whom?  Before just now, I mean.

-- 
Zev Sero                      The trouble with socialism is that you
zev at sero.name                 eventually run out of other people’s money
                                                     - Margaret Thatcher