The Lubavitcher Rebbe, A Master of the Spirit
A Rebbe, Chasidic tradition teaches, must “clothe” himself in the psyche of the person who seeks his guidance, changing, as it were, between each supplicant. People who met the Rebbe were struck by his laser-focused attention and his extraordinary ability to connect so profoundly with them in the span of merely a few moments.
by Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, chairman of Merkos L’inyonei Chinuch, Lubavitch.com
The Rebbe of the Jewish People
In trying to understand the place in Jewish life of the man we still call, 25 years after his death, “The Rebbe,” implicitly acknowledging him as the unrivaled spiritual leader of the generation, I begin with the dollar bill in my wallet.
Yossi Klein Halevi, Times of Israel
Me Among the Believers
If you told me six or seven years ago that I would do this one day, I would have probably laughed it off—and returned to my bacon cheeseburger. But over the past few years, as I’ve begun to find my way into a more robustly Jewish life, I realized that I needed a guide. In the Rebbe’s writings, in his lectures, I found not an attempt to overwhelm me into submission or shame me into compliance, but a reassurance that my path to God was good for one reason: because it was mine, and mine alone.
By Liel Leibovitz, Tablet Magazine
The Rebbe’s legacy after 25 years: Accessible Judaism
What makes the great men mentioned so relevant and beloved to the Jewish people hundreds and even thousands of years after their passing is the fact that instead of devoting their intellectual genius to to the creation of novel Torah interpretation and commentary, devoted their intellectual energy and output towards making available Jewish knowledge to one and all.
Rabbi Mendel Kalmenson, Times of Israel
Selflessness and the Self in the Teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe
The Rebbe highlighted this theme in his opening address as the leader of Chabad. He began his very first ma’amar with an extended analysis of various rabbinic texts which led him to define the generational mission as nothing less than revealing the divine core of reality and ushering in the messianic era. The Rebbe then transitioned to discuss specific strategies that the generation would need to employ to complete this historic mission. One theme the Rebbe highlighted was that of mesirut nefesh.
This is for Your Love
I was four years old when I entered the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s room, before the bar mitzvah of my older brother Boruch. The Rebbe asked me if I could share a story with him — “A story about Adam, Avraham, or Noach.” I was a shy boy, and I remained silent. He asked me a few times; when I didn’t respond, the Rebbe smiled and continued to converse with my parents.
My brother still jokes with me: “You left that room, and haven’t stopped telling stories since…” Then he adds: “Maybe it’s because you were silent in that room, that you know how to tell a story…”
Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Jacobson, Mishpacha
13 Ways the Lubavitcher Rebbe Changed the World Forever
The Rebbe believed that every person—regardless of background or knowledge—could be empowered as a conduit to spread goodness and kindness wherever they were. Together, those combined acts could illuminate the world, elevating it and bringing true transcendence.
The following offers a glimpse at how the Rebbe, through great vision, has categorically changed the Jewish world.
Mordechai Lightstone, chabad.org
The Rebbe – the last ‘religious genius’
Nowadays “genius” is part of the title of almost every ultra-Orthodox rabbi. They are הרה”ג — the genius rabbi, having totally devalued the term, turning it into an honorific. I use the term in a very strict and precise way, based on a research project carried out by 50 scholars, on exemplary figures in world religions (all religions) and the attempt to develop a category by means we can relate to those who were transformative and who exhibited a greatness of personality that significantly exceeds common religious excellence.
Alon Goshen-Gottstein, Times of Israel
