To Lead is to Follow – The New Within The Old
by Rabbi Yoseph Kahanov Jax, FL
The late Bobover Rebbe is said to have been sitting on an airplane in the late 1950s, next to the famous playwright Arthur Miller.
Upon observing the care and reverence with which the Bobover Rebbe was escorted through the airport and settled into his seat by his young protégés – how they kept checking on his well-being and doting over him – Miller turned to the Rebbe and asked: “Rabbi, how come when I, a pillar of secular knowledge, lecture at a university I am treated casually, and even with disrespect by the students, while you, a teacher of an archaic tradition, are treated with utmost reverence, almost as a beloved surrogate parent, by your followers?”
The Rebbe, purportedly, smiled and replied: “It is very simple, you, a secular scholar, teach your students that they are descendants of monkeys, so when they look at you, they see someone who is one generation closer to their primitive ape past, no wonder why they treat you that way.
I, on the other hand, teach my students that they are descendants of the awesome generation who stood at Sinai and witnessed the greatest Divine revelation in history, so they consider me one generation closer to that transformational face to face encounter with the Divine, is it a wonder that they respect me?”
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