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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial>From: Zev Sero <A href="mailto:zev@sero.name">zev@sero.name</A><BR><BR>>> Lub has always
respected the GRA, even at the height of his persecution. <BR>He was
always assumed to have been making a terrible mistake, and that<BR>while his
actions were wicked and against halacha his motivation was<BR>genuinely lesheim
shomayim, so it wasn't held against him. It was<BR>believed that he had
been misled by false witnesses reporting serious<BR>breaches of halacha, and
that had he known the truth he would not have <BR>acted as he did.<BR><BR>When
the Chevraya Kadisha wanted to put him in a strong cherem that would<BR>cut him
off from the shoresh of his neshama and guarantee that he would<BR>shmad, ch"v,
the Alter Rebbe refused to join them, and he suffered from<BR>their kepeida as a
result, but the cherem did not proceed. When the GRA<BR>died, the AR
issued a public letter referring to him as "hagaon hechasid",<BR>and warning
chassidim not to rejoice at his passing.<BR><BR>So it's not at all surprising
that hebrewbooks.org should have Maaseh Rav.<BR>There's nothing to
forgive.<BR><BR>-- <BR>Zev
Sero
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<DIV>>>>>></DIV>
<DIV>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. My father was a Gerrer chossid and had plenty of choice
words for Litvaks, believe me, but he was a man who believed in being modeh al
ha'emes. 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.</DIV>
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<DIV>Having said that, I would add that my father would have agreed with today's
Lubs (and other chassidim) that it was a pity the Vilna Gaon never met the Baal
HaTanya. (But then again, my father would have said that the
Baal HaTanya wouldn't have recognized today's Chabad as anything he ever would
have wanted or imagined.)</DIV>
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<DIV>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?</DIV>
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<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff><BR></FONT><B><FONT color=#0000ff>--Toby
Katz<BR>==========<BR><BR></FONT><FONT lang=0 color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"></B>--------------------</FONT></DIV>
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