Reply To: Clarification to mod and DaMoshe

Arso,

“I apologize for what I’m about to say, but you are getting really annoying! What proof do you have that he cared about every Jew any more than any other tzaddik does? Because he said so? ”

I think there are many factors.

1) personal time and investment into the needs of every Jew. Some examples: Holding yechidus 3x per week (if I’m not mistaken, definitely 2) throughout all hours of the night (Rabbi Shmuel lew was personally in yechidus at 6am) and then keeping up his normal demanding schedule that same morning on. Later on, the sheer numbers of people were incompatible, so that’s when he instituted dollars, a shorter form of yechidus for 1000s.

Additionally the Rebbe responded to thousands + Of letters that came in from all Jews. The Rebbe spent hours learning but also made time to respond to these and urgent calls that came in all hours of day and night.

The workload and personal responsibility were so great that the Rebbe never went on vacation or took a break. He only left NYC three times to visit newly instituted camps (that’s how seriously the Rebbe viewed children’s chinuch and safety.) even when recovering from a heart attack and after a stroke, The Rebbe refused to take a break because of the seriousness he viewed it.

2) The Rebbes care and concern for the Klal and individual. Whether it was the bochur the Rebbe dispatched early in the am to knock precisely at 6am on a man’s door and put on/ deliver tefillin, because the man had been by yechidus that night and the Rebbe had extracted a promise the man would put on tefillin, but only at 6 precisely, the people the Rebbe dispatched to bring women candles to light for shabbos in the hospital, The Chossid who the Rebbe asked to make a stopover in a random country until he met a Jew who had given Hashem a deadline for a sign He’s there so he shouldn’t convert, the boy who the Rebbe prepared for his fathers passing, and the countless others who got brachos and advice for recovery, and conversely the Rebbes clear guidance for matters of Yiddishkeit, political, military etc leadership, such as the many meetings with top brass or their agents in Israel, The advice to a soldier to bring some ruchnius to the bases, advising Rabbinical leadership etc etc. Whether an individual or leader, the Rebbe empowered each individual to light up his or her part of the world in a practical way.

3) The sheer breadth of the Rebbes guidance. He didn’t suffice with a general bracha or wish for people, rather he knew exactly what to do in each situation. If it was about Avodas Hashem, The Rebbe provided a clear roadmap. With health as well. And with security, politics, The finances of Eretz Yisrael, he was intimately familiar with the particulars of each situation and how to lead. although he never visited Eretz Yisrael, he could and did describe any neighborhood or security layout as needed.

In conclusion, unlike the warped view of a vain leader, to quote Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (who the Rebbe propelled on his journey to what he became) “other leaders create followers. The Rebbe creates leaders.”