{"id":21117,"date":"2010-07-14T11:37:54","date_gmt":"2010-07-14T19:37:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=21117"},"modified":"2010-07-14T11:37:54","modified_gmt":"2010-07-14T19:37:54","slug":"five-reasons-for-chabads-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=21117","title":{"rendered":"Five Reasons For Chabad’s Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dennis Prager writes for the Jewish Journal<\/a>:<\/p>\n

4. They act happy.<\/p>\n

In the realm of religion, theological brilliance rarely comes close to a happy personality in its ability to attract (healthy) people to a given faith. The best arguments for a religion are that its adherents are better (more moral, more deep) and happier human beings as a result of their commitment to that religion.<\/p>\n

In light of that, the happiness that the vast majority of Chabad rabbis and their wives radiate is perhaps the most powerful asset in the Chabad rabbi\u2019s arsenal. That they maintain this cheerful demeanor (and I have been with dozens of Chabad rabbis away from their public roles), given their often-difficult financial and social situations (not to mention normal human problems), is a credit to them \u2014 and to their faith. This is very attractive to the overwhelmingly non-Orthodox Jews with whom they relate.<\/p>\n

Lesson: Nothing is more powerful than a happy demeanor in attracting people \u2014 to one\u2019s faith or to one\u2019s self (singles take note).<\/p>\n

5. They act nonjudgmental.<\/p>\n

Finally, I have come to believe \u2014 after initial skepticism given the level of Orthodoxy within Chabad \u2014 that they mean it when they say they love all Jews regardless of their level of halachic observance. My own experience had led me to believe that most Orthodox Jews do judge other Jews \u2014 consciously or not \u2014 by their level of observance. And Chabad takes some flak for this from some other Orthodox Jews. For example, few other \u201cblack hat\u201d (\u201cultra-Orthodox\u201d) Jews are as welcoming to Jews who drive on Shabbat to be with them as the Chabad rabbis.<\/p>\n

Lesson: If Orthodox Jews judged fellow Jews solely by their ethical behavior and not by their ritual behavior, both Orthodoxy and Jewry would be much better off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dennis Prager writes for the Jewish Journal: 4. They act happy. In the realm of religion, theological brilliance rarely comes close to a happy personality in its ability to attract (healthy) people to a given faith. The best arguments for … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[165,4],"tags":[667,22850,29761,1912,22851,9226],"class_list":["post-21117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chabad","category-dennis-prager","tag-chabad-rabbi","tag-cheerful-demeanor","tag-dennis-prager","tag-fellow-jews","tag-initial-skepticism","tag-ultra-orthodox-jews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21117\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}