Haskolo without avoda 1

I understand that the derech of putting the main koch on the Haskolo, but also working intensely on Avodas HaTefillah, is regarded as legitimate. This is not the type of maskil that is intended when the maskil is denigrated by the Rebbeim in the harshest terms. Rather, the maskil that deserves ridicule is the one who focuses on Haskolo, but neglects Avodah altogether:

In the year 5652, at the wedding of Reb Moshe Horenshtein, my father (the Rebbe Rashab) said, “When we learn Chassidus and do not work on Avodah, the punishment given is the same as the one who takes the king’s head and bends it down, as is written in Tanya (ch. 24).”

Sefer HaSichos 5706, p. 12.

This is comparable to the one who grasps on to the king’s head, and lowers it down, and hides his face in a toilet filled with excrement. There is no greater disgrace than this, even if one only does so for a moment.”

Tanya Kaddisha, ch. 24.

Oived versus Maskil 1

It used to be that when Chassidim would hear someone repeating a Ma’amar (Chassidic discourse), they would ask, “Is he an oived?” If he was an oived, they would listen to it, and if not, not.

Teshurah L’zecher Reb Shlomo Chaim Kesselman, p. 50.

There are two different types of Chabad Chassidim:

• Oived: Lit., “the one who works.” The one whose main focus is Avodas HaTefillah, internalizing the Chassidus that he learns through lengthy Hisbonenus (detailed meditation) with the goal of refining himself and changing his middos (character traits). He studies Chassidus in great depth, but always with the emphasis at internalizing it.
  

• Maskil: Lit., “the intellectual.” The Maskil’s main goal is to reach a thorough intellectual grasp of Hashem’s greatness. He engages in Hisbonenus as well, but this is not the main emphasis in his Avodah.

There are many beautiful Sichos of the Frierdiker Rebbe that discuss the difference between these two paths in Avodah. The common theme in them is the praise for the oived and the denigration of the maskil, sometimes in very harsh language.