THE DETROIT. JEWISH NEWS
son. Born in Russia 83 years ago, the
Rebbe is a big man with a large head and
broad shoulders.. His face is gripping — set
off by a squared-off white beard and sharp-
ly penetrating eyes. His dress is like that
of any of the 25,000 other Hasidim who
live in Crown Heights; black hat, black
suit, white shirt. He is, however, definitely
not just another Hasid.
To under6tand how he has made
Lubavitch an empire, one must under-
stand something about the position of a
rebbe, and to do that one must understand
something of the nature of Hasidism.
- Lubavitch, like all Hasidic sects, traces
its roots back to the 18th century and the
founder of Hasidism, the Baal Shem Tov
or Master of the Good Name. It was the
Baal Shem Tov's radical notion that a sim-
ple man who_ prayed sincerely was better
than a Talmudic scholar whose heart was -
cold.
The. Baal Shem Tov's wish was to make
all Jews full partners in the enterprise of
serving God, each in his own way, each to
the best of his ability. Its underpinnings
were mystical, a belief that all Jews and,
indeed, all things on earth had a good pur-
pose for which they could and should be
put. It is the job of every Jew, said the
Baal Shem Tov, to infuse holiness in all as-
pects of life.
It was an idea that appealed to the com-
mon man and spread quickly. By the 19th
century, three-fourths of the JeViish pop-
ulation of Eastern Europe considered
themselves Hasidim. But while all follow-
ers were united by a shared goal and com-
mon philosophy, they came to be divided
by courts, each forming around its own
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"Their appeal is on the
basis of reaching out to
all Jews, but they've
been behaving differ-
endy. Their unchecked
success has led them to
overplay their hand."
leader who was seen as their holy guide in-
to the ways of Heaven.
It was one of the Baal Shem Tov's dis-
ciples, Rabbi Schneur Zalman, who founded
the sect of Hasidism known as Chabad.
Two years after Schneur ZahnEm's death,
its leaders moved the sect to the 'small
Byelorussian town of Lubavitch (City of
Love) which would serve as its home for
about 100 years. -
From its beginning, what made Chabad
different from other Hasidic sects has been
its emphasison social action, on efforts to
reach out, to help imbue every Jew with
a sense of the holiness in himself and in
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Photos of Lubavitcher
Rebbe on sale in a Crown
Heights store.