When Chabad Goes Too Far

Nachum Lamm posts on Facebook: I got on a plane from Israel some time back and sat down next to a kid with tefillin on- it was about 10:30 AM. His mother (sitting between us) explained that he would be bar mitzva-ed in about a month. So far, so good, apart from the time?

Well, let me jump ahead and say that he barely wore his kippah during the flight. Nu, OK, he’s not religious, but tefillin are good, right?

Until I saw him put on a second pair. Rabbenu Tam. Gevalt. And then I saw that the two tefillin bags had pictures of 770 on them, and I didn’t have to ask what had happened.Read More

To tell a mother that she needs to buy *two* pairs of tefillin for her son- one pair is expensive enough- without explaining that this is uniquely (for unmarried men) a Chabad custom and that one pair is just fine for him is simply unconscionable.

About Luke Ford

I've written five books (see Amazon.com). My work has been covered in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and on 60 Minutes. I teach Alexander Technique in Beverly Hills (Alexander90210.com).
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