Proposed Solution to the Arab-Zionist Conflict: Non-Denominational State

ujm said: Not everyone subscribes to that Chabad belief.

It is most definitely not exclusively a “Chabad belief”. At any rate, they hold that way, and they don’t care what anyone else holds. You don’t have to do it.

ujm said: I dare say that is a minority opinion.

Even אם תמצי לומר that it is so, something by no means certain, so they are being מזכה Yidden to do Mitzvos according to a ‘minority opinion’, as opposed to not doing them at all.

ujm said: And people often want to be polite or friendly. So if someone smilingly offers you something you might accept it to humor him or engage with him in a friendly way, but no more.

Why is that worse than a three year old doing a Mitzvah to get a lollypop? Jewishly speaking, these are mostly ‘big three year olds’ as opposed to real ‘kofrim’. As it happens, there are unfortunately some (Jewish) people who refuse to put on Tefillin even when approached. So there definitely is such an option. If someone really doesn’t believe (or so claims), why should he feel obliged to humor a perfect stranger, who he might even view with hostility? Therefore, if someone does choose to put on Tefillin, it shows he DOES believe on some level. That might even count as a הרהור תשובה to make him a Kosher Jew for those five minutes even לשיטתך, by the way. (Which is one of the סניפים used by Poskim who permit and even encourage such activity.) It’s the Satan’s job to be מקטרג and always look for flaws and ulterior motives in people’s Mitzvos, you don’t need to help him…

Let me ask you a question. If you were a Hatzalah volunteer, and a non-Frum Jew was having a heart attack ר״ל, would you really and truly be מורידין ולא מעלין, or would you (at LEAST) say ספק פיקוח נפש להחמיר when you have BOTH a פלוגתא דרבוותא and a ספק במציאות?

AAQ said: You don’t have to focus just on that one event. It is not as if Chabad just doing that. It is part of their trying to find and touch non-observant Jews.

Correct, but the discussion (which is in fact a discussion in contemporary Poskim) started with Tefillin because theoretically there is a ‘down side’ of ‘defiling’ the Kedusha of the Tefillin. Getting people to do Lulav and Esrog or hear Megillah etc. is a complete no-brainer that it is muttar. As soon as we have determined that the person putting on Tefillin is in fact a בר חיובא and has at least minimal intention to do a Mitzvah, it isn’t considered ‘defiling’ the Tefillin. That is the same Heter we have to put on Tefillin… The Lubavitcher Rebbe pointed out that someone putting on Tefillin for the first time in his life, for just a few minutes, is actually much LESS likely to ‘space out’ and be מסיח דעת than we are…