The Rebbe’s Enduring Leadership

MyLife Essay Contest 2015

During the 2000 presidential election in which Al Gore was looking to unseat incumbent President George W. Bush, a technical error involving many of the election ballots in the State of Florida made it difficult to determine which candidate many voters intended to vote for. A subsequent Supreme Court ruling overturned the case for a ballot recount and ultimately announced incumbent President George W. Bush as the victor.

As the controversy was playing itself out, a few of the Chassidic sects were approached regarding whom they deemed worthy for the presidential role. The surveyor approached a representative from Breslov who questioned the need for a President altogether. He then entered the courts of Vishnitz and Bobov who thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to elect both candidates to the presidency. Finally, when he approached Chabad, inquiring whom they preferred for President the answer he got was, “What’s wrong with George Washington?”

This essay is an attempt to address the leadership role of the Rebbe after 3 Tamuz. For many young people, who comprise the next generation of Chassidim, this has generated significant feelings of ambivalence, resulting in the abandonment of Chassidic ideals and even a weakness in the steadfastness in faith altogether in some of our youth.

The notion that we are able to connect to a tzaddik posthumously is written clearly in the Zohar cited in the Iggeres Hakodesh section of Tanya:

“Since the soul of the righteous is unconstrained to the confines of his body, he is more accessible after his demise than during his life.”

This is a tenet that should be natural to Chabad Chassidim—as this is an area that the Rebbe and many of the Rebbeim dwelled on at length in an attempt to create a predisposition of sorts in all of their Chassidim. Yet the passing of the Rebbe 20 years ago presents an obstacle for some of our youth. They cannot feel connected to him as a result of their inability to see him and hear from him as their parents and grandparents were at leisure to do.

However, since many feel that the natural course of action would be to appoint a new leader in the absence of the previous one, it’s important at this point to debunk that notion. The Rebbe was asked many times by different people if anyone could occupy the role of a Rebbe. On one occasion it was an assemblage of students from Columbia University who posed this question to the Rebbe during a yechidus that they were granted, to which the Rebbe responded that is not the case. The Rebbe explained to them that the leader of a generation possesses what is known in Chassidus as a neshamah kelalis—the Rebbe of a generation is tuned into the souls of all the Jewish people of his generation. The Rebbe explained that just as all of the electricity in a given town is distributed from a central tower, the Rebbe, similarly serves as the transformer and has a special soul link with the people of his generation.

This is a virtue that is not routinely bequeathed to a child or any other close disciple or kin notwithstanding their level of religiosity or scholarship. While many have chosen to install leaders to replace their predecessors just because it seems like the rational thing to do, that decision has at times proven to negatively impact entire Chassidic dynasties.

Prior to his passing, the Rebbe Rashab declared to his chassidim, “My body will ascend on high, but my writings (soul) remain(s) with you.” Sefarim record that the word anochi comprises the roshei teivos “Ana Nafshi K’savis Yehavis” which says that G-d, whose ten commandments begins with the word Anochi, concealed His light within them. As an extension of that, the way in which we could cleave to our Rebbe is through his vast written legacy which contains his soul.

In reading the many books that have recently been published about the Rebbe’s life and leadership, I was most moved when reading about the manner in which the Rebbe conducted himself during the transitional year between the Friediker Rebbe’s passing and the subsequent tenth of Shevat when he formally ascended to the throne of the Chabad dynasty. Amidst the deluge of pressure that the Rebbe encountered from supporters of his trying to force his hand at accepting the leadership role, the Rebbe embraced the Friediker Rebbe’s leadership then just as he had during his life. It came almost natural to the Rebbe to respond to a biting letter from Reb Yisrael Noach Bellinitzky, “As for me, I have my Rebbe, the Friediker Rebbe, as he continues to guide me now as he has in the past. As for the Chassidim, whom you write are in need of direction and leadership, you should petition to the Friediker Rebbe for it’s his responsibility.”

The above incident clearly portrays how the Friediker Rebbe’s passing did not present an obstacle for our Rebbe vis-à-vis his ability to continue being led by him. A shliach during a rare visit to New York lamented to the Rebbe about his inability to see the Rebbe and visit him as frequently as some of the other shluchim. The Rebbe replied, “When I walk in the street, I review Tanya by heart. If you will do the same, we will surely meet somewhere along the way.” With the souls of the Chassidim bound to the Rebbe’s soul, there was never a need to see him or be seen and that remains the case today since the soul of the righteous endures.

Furthermore, in his kuntres hahishtatchus al kivrei haTzaddikim, the Mitteler Rebbe enumerates five levels explaining the potency of prayer at the gravesite of the righteous. In his fifth and final item he writes, “The fifth level is exceedingly noble and it is expounded upon in the sefer Mishnas Chassidim through which we could become pervaded with the intellectual achievements of that particular tzaddik. Petitioners at the gravesite of a tzaddik could encounter the soul of that tzaddik as it was manifested in the body of Adam haRishon. Lest you think that this practice is reserved for men of Great Spirit and holiness, the Mitteler Rebbe continues, “This level surpasses the previous one and is attainable to people of an ordinary spiritual stature, vd’l.”

The Zohar teaches that the tzaddik is more accessible after his passing than prior to his passing since his soul which is eternal is no longer confined to his body. I wanted to read deeper into this Zohar based on a couple of Chassidic ideas in order to shed greater light on the benefit of being led by a leader who cannot be seen physically. The Torah tells us that our patriarch Yaakov married two sisters, Rochel and Leah. In Toras Hachassidus and Kabbalah, Rochel and Leah represent the revealed and concealed worlds respectively. According to the narrative in the Torah, Yaakov loved Rochel more than Leah. Yaakov agreed to become employed by his future father-in-law Lavan as a precondition to taking the hand of his daughter, Rochel in marriage. Furthermore, the Torah tells us, “Yaakov called to Rochel and to Leah” first Rochel and secondarily to Leah. Compounding Yaakov’s favoritism to Rochel over Leah, the Torah states, “And Yaakov loved Rochel also from Leah” as well as, “G-d saw that Leah was despised…”

Despite Yaakov’s open love for Rochel, as a result of the inferiority that Leah felt in the presence of her sister, G-d had it that Leah would be the mother of the majority of Yaakov’s children who comprise the nation of Am Yisrael. From Leah comes the tribe of Levi who represents the Priesthood, the tribe from which Moshe Rabbenu, the giver of the Torah, is born; as well as the tribe of Yehuda and his Kingdom. The children of Leah encompass an integral part of Klal Yisrael to the point where all Jews are referred to as Yehudim—which stems etymologically from the name Yehuda whom as we stated was a son of Leah.

The Torah also states that Rochel was outwardly attractive; whereas although it doesn’t say that Leah was not beautiful, Rashi points out that her eyes were bloodshot from all the crying that she had been doing. The reason for this as expounded upon in Chassidus is Rochel’s embodiment of the revealed aspect of Torah and Leah’s personification of the concealed world of Torah. The name Leah itself implies that she was exhausted and while according to the simple understanding of the narrative, a lot of crying brings on exhaustion—according to Chassidus the life of a “Leah” is involved in revealing endless layers of depth in everything their eye encounters, whereas Rochel is limited in the scope of what it sees in any given matter.

As both Rochel and Leah were wives of Yaakov and mothers to the collective children of Israel, they are both indispensable. The message that lies in this is our need to internalize both of these characteristics in our own lives in order to trump the vicissitudes that life inevitably throws our way. In acknowledgement of the superhuman, irrational leap of faith that it takes to persevere when your mind tells you that is not the way to go, G-d ultimately opens the womb of the despised Leah. This says that the clarity that we will ultimately reap as a result of staying the course and following the lead that the Rebbe tirelessly recorded and established goes beyond the reward of someone who is led according to their senses.

I believe we see this too in the idea of Ohr Yashar and Ohr Chozer which in a sense corresponds with the paradigms of Rochel and Leah — Rochel corresponding to the tzaddik and Leah the ba’al teshuvah; or Rochel who follows a gradual course of progression versus Leah who as a result of her blind leap of faith merits far more intense reward for perseverance amidst a time of ambivalence and uncertainty.

If there was a message that the younger generation needs to hear now it is that although it seems that our parents and grandparents had it easier with the Rebbe at their side, directing them throughout the course of his leadership, our lot in that regard is no different. The only difference is the ultimate clarity we will be privy to if we persevere and stay the course despite the perceived darkness.