In the current era, poll leadership rules the world. A successful leader is one who knows how to read public opinion polls and deliver catchy messages that resonate with the masses.
In many cases, the candidate himself does not know how to do this, and he entrusts himself to strategists and consultants, who analyze the polls and formulate his statements for him.
In a certain sense, it is good for a public leader to be attentive to public opinion. If 'the people rule,' then the elected official must listen to the people's position and implement the policy that the people desire. However, there are situations where the people are immersed in a misconception, and the test of a true leader is his ability to lead the people to a place where the people themselves would not go.
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Against all odds
Such leaders are the ones who bring about revolutions.
They are not stuck in the existing reality, but see what it can and should be. They set goals that seem impossible, and succeed in motivating masses to strive for them.
Such was the Rebbe Rayatz (Rabbi Yosef-Yitzhak Schneerson) of Lubavitch, the sixth president of Chabad Hasidism.
When the communist revolution broke out in Soviet Russia, no one thought it possible to stand up against it. But the Rebbe acted against all logic, and established an underground of devoted Hasidim who worked to preserve the embers of Judaism.
When he came to the United States in 1940, he found a cool Judaism there, trying to assimilate into the American spirit. Good friends tried to explain to him that America was different, and that there was no chance of rebuilding the old Judaism in America.
But the Rebbe declared: "America is no different!" - and this sentence became the guiding slogan of his activities.
On the 12th of Shvat, 1950 (1950), the Rayatz Rebbe passed away and was succeeded by his son-in-law, the Lubavitcher Rebbe. He set even more ambitious goals – to bring the light of Judaism to every corner of the earth, and to make authentic Judaism flourish in every corner.
We are unable to grasp how far removed from reality this goal sounded in those days. Observant Judaism was shattered after the Holocaust. Masses of young people, from religious and ultra-Orthodox homes, abandoned the path of Torah and the mitzvot and were tempted by the pleasures of the modern world.
Religious Judaism fought a war of attrition, in desperate hope of saving its children. But the Rebbe declared a 'breakthrough', and called for illuminating the world with the light of Judaism.
Thought revolution
Here the greatness of the revolutionaries was revealed. The vision of the Rebbe Rayatz came true, in the form of dozens of Torah and Hasidic centers that were established in cold America. Bearded Jews began to be seen on the streets of the United States. Yeshivas were established where young people were educated according to the same values of Torah and Hasidic, just as in the 'old world'.
The revolution was completed and strengthened by the Lubavitcher Rebbe. He brought about a revolution in thought. The Rebbe taught that there can be no real contradiction between the world and the Torah. He guided scientists, businessmen, artists, and Jewish leaders around the world on how to engage in their professional activities without giving up even the thorn of a jurist's side in matters of Judaism.
The Rebbe revived the belief in complete redemption and instilled it in the entire Jewish people, with the aim of hastening the coming of our righteous Messiah in our day.
