Like many people, I first experienced Chabad as a freshman in college, which it made it all the more interesting to learn that the Rebbe, a graduate of esteemed European universities, was opposed to his followers going into higher education.
(There are many instances within the book of how many people chosen to be emissaries, called shlichim, were reluctant to embark on their assignments.) Today there are Chabad houses in forty-eight states and in eighty countries run by over four thousand tireless Chabad couples and their families.
As a matter of course, the Rebbe would send emissaries to work in places where Jewish communities were struggling or non-existent. The fruit of these labors are still being cultivated. Perhaps the Rebbe's greatest legacy, if one could define it succinctly, was his eagerness to embrace all Jews regardless of their religious commitment, something many Jewish sects did not do, indeed continue to ignore at their loss. It was in this milieu where his work has had lasting impact. Personally, I am baffled at how he could sleep so little, literally almost not at all, yet still have the energy and stamina to dedicate so much time to others throughout the day and night. The amount of time he spent on and with others is staggering. Indeed, if one were to pick up this book without knowing a single thing about Rabbi Schneerson, he/she would first be introduced to a man who was consulted by members of Congress, was honored by presidents, all the while engaging in his clerical duties. The dynamic narrative is time-bound yet not chronological. How did this happen? Through his clear and unambiguous prose cultivated from many sources, Telushkin recounts how the Rebbe fundamentally transformed notions of human potential, as he believed individuals were capable of much more than we imagine for ourselves. Fast forward several decades and the Chabad-Lubavitch global influence reaches far beyond that of any other Jewish institution in history. Newsweek even went so far as to label the Rebbe "the most influential Jew in the world." Although he never sought the position of Rebbe (even going so far as to protest the international campaign for his candidacy) and was initially known to be an introvert, Schneerson quickly became a global ambassador for Judaism when he expanded an obscure group of Hasidic Jews to an international powerhouse of outreach and education.
Rabbi Schneerson defined and modeled pious Jewish living for decades, going to so far as to have influence on the non-Jewish American consciousness. Rabbi Schneerson reverently referred to as "the Rebbe" both inside and outside Chabad-Lubavitch circles, was one of the most influential Jewish leaders of the twentieth century (Telushkin unabashedly suggests that he was the "most influential rabbi in modern history" in his subtitle for the book).
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