The Genuine Leader – Rebbe Nachman

People ask me why so many groups – even among the Chassidic movement – were against Rebbe Nachman of blessed and saintly memory. In my humble opinion, the answer is quite obvious. Rebbe Nachman’s magnet was truth. During his time, few were attracted by that magnet. Rebbe Nachman was not a populist Rebbe – he didn’t distribute wholesale blessings for health, income, and worldly amenities. His soul concern was bringing his followers closer to the truth.
 
Rebbe Nachman disdained the false leaders who were concerned with their own appetite-gratification, whether they sought prestige, fame, money or whatever. On numerous occasions, he chastised the mefursamim shel sheker – the famous false leaders, whom most of the masses chased after. The masses were much more comfortable with tasting their leader’s potato kugel on Friday night tish and feeling great about themselves: “I’m a chassid – a pious one!”
 
Rebbe Nachman’s demands of his followers to wake up at midnight for tikkun chatzot, to speak to Hashem in personal prayer and in probing self-assessment every day, to guard one’s eyes and zealously maintain personal holiness, and to put the bulk of one’s efforts to Torah and prayer were a lot less popular then the mere outer trappings of shtreimel-and-gefilte fish Chassidut. Add to this his criticism of false leaders, and you don’t get a formula for popularity among the masses, in the short term.
 
 
But, as the holy kibbutz in Uman on Rosh Hashana attests, truth is the formula for the success and lasting popularity of a true leader in the long term.
 
Rebbe Nachman of Breslev, our beloved Rebbe and spiritual guide whom we call the flowing river and the source of wisdom, is also the source of truth, for one can’t find the path of truth without the path of emuna, and no one teaches emuna like Rebbe Nachman.
 
Pondering Rebbe Nachman is rather bittersweet. The sweetness is that we see Hashem’s ever-loving mercy in that He decided to send Rebbe Nachman’s holy neshama to this lowly spiritual world for our benefit.
 
The bitter part of thinking about Rebbe Nachman is that it heightens our awareness to what a true leader really is. We sorely need a Rebbe Nachman today. Yet, when we look who is leading our government today, we find personalities who trample Torah to appease international pressure, who have been caught red-handed in scandalous and immoral behavior, and who say one thing today and do something else tomorrow. They and truth have nothing in common.
 
Let’s ask ourselves a painfully obvious question: How can one govern others when he can’t even govern his lowest bodily lusts? Now you know why the genuine leaders of Israel – from Moses, to Rebbe Shimon Bar Yochai, and down to the holy Or Hachaim, the Vilna Gaon, and Rebbe Nachman, all of saintly and sacred memory – were impeccable in their level of personal holiness.
 
Rabbenu Nachman had uncompromising ideals because he had uncompromising emuna. The petty politicians of today with their Botany-500 and Volvo exteriors lack both conviction and backbone because they lack emuna. 
 
Funny, when I think of true leaders, men of spirituality are first to come to mind. 
 
What is a genuine leader? A genuine leader is one who best utilizes and cultivates the personal talents and potential of those that he leads. A true leader believes that seemingly ordinary human beings are capable of extraordinary accomplishments. A true leader has the ability to instill in his followers a passion to fulfill a dream, and that no dream is beyond reach. We’re talking about inner courage. The great leader has the courage to stand up to all adversity and to lead his followers to greatness. 
 
When we observe great leaders, we’re inspired to discover the unique and extraordinary qualities that are within each one of us, just as Rebbe Nachman taught us to do in his famous teaching that we nickname “Azamra” (see Likutei Moharan I:282). 
 
Mahatma Gandhi was an ordinary man who rose above his “ordinariness” to become a leader who transformed humanity, paving the way for equality and the raising of human consciousness unlike no other leader in the 20th century. He was so simple and plain in every way that the aristocratic Winston Churchill addressed him with utter contempt. Yet, I would venture to say that Gandhi’s memory today still inspires millions as he once did in the flesh before his death some 60 years ago. Gandhi lived modestly, spoke the truth, and fought in his quietly courageous way to free his country of foreign domination. How nice it would be to be able to say that about a single one of our contemporary local politicians.
 
The other great leader that comes to mind was also a man of spirituality and far-reaching vision, Reverend Martin Luther King. He stood up with formidable courage in the face of hostility. He elevated the hopes of millions of his fellow countrymen, white and black, and dared to believe in a world where all people could share the bounties of the earth without prejudice. He opened the doors for possibilities that no one dared to dream of, possibilities that have since become real. 
 
Yet, with all due respect to the world’s truly great leaders, Rebbe Nachman has surpassed them all. He teaches us to break away from the Yetzer’s chains of spiritual slavery that bind us to despair. He teaches us that we are not only beloved sons and daughters of The Almighty, but that each of us may speak to The King whenever we like. He leads us on the path of greatness, teaching us that we are capable of serving The Almighty just as the greatest tzaddikim in history did. The sky is the limit and there’s no need for despair ever. 
 
If that’s not enough, Rebbe Nachman teaches us that we must bring all of mankind to G-d, not as missionaries or as proselytizers, but simply to improve the human condition, to enhance global peace, and to sanctify Hashem’s Holy Name. It is this, Rebbe Nachman’s holy legacy, that we are honor-bound to follow.