Timeless Torah

In several hours, I will be boarding a plane headed for New York. The threats of the ‘Unabomber’ will not stop me, nor will he deter the thousands of other Chassidim of the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe from attending the first Yahrzeit of this great leader.
As always, one needs to look to Torah for an appropriate message on the events in our lives. This week, one does not require extensive research to discover the connection between the Rebbe’s inspirational example and the ideals postulated in Ethics of our Fathers.
In Mishna #12 of this week’s chapter, Rabbi Elazar ben Shamua teaches, “Let the honor of your student be as dear to you as your own...” By the tenets and traditions of Judaism, we already know that we are to respect our fellow man. Still, our Sage is not offering redundant advice. He comes to note that respect must be given even where a specific relationship might seem to indicate otherwise.
When you are a teacher, your student obviously needs you more than you need him. Certainly, he is dependent upon you to give, while he receives. In this instance, you might forget that he deserves your high regard. Therefore, Rabbi Elazar reminds us that honor is still due to the pupil.
Rabbi Jonathan Sachs, the Chief Rabbi of England sees in the Rebbe something even greater. In his own words: We first met in 1968. The Rebbe turned the interview around and began asking me questions. What was I doing to promote Jewish identity among my fellow students in Cambridge? I then realized that the Rebbe was exactly the opposite of what was usually attributed to him. This was not a man interested in creating followers. Instead, here was a man who was passionate about creating leaders.
The Rebbe was preoccupied with the challenge of religious leadership. He himself turned his followers into leaders at the earliest age and, if the decision to empower youth exposed Lubavitch to risks, it also gave it a vigor and energy that were to be found nowhere else in the world.
While respecting your students is commendable, they remain students in your eyes nonetheless. To see them however, as leaders in their own right was the Rebbe’s unique trademark.