qwerty: “The question that started this thread implies that a Chassidus is viable if it has a Rebbe…. if you had a Rebbe, like the Sfas Emes(my favorite) who made Torah study the sine qua non of life, I think the movement could go on quite well without a Rebbe.”
It seems that you don’t realize that “a chassidus” is not the same as “a movement”. While a chassidus is ALSO ‘a movement’ it is far more than that, as the former requires a rebbe while the latter does not.