By Rabbi Yitschak Rudomin
A well known Lubavitch author, Rabbi Chaim Dalfin, wrote a fascinating book, also containing many informative footnotes, about the relationship between the famous Rosh Yeshiva Rav Yitzchok Hutner (1906–1980) and the last Lubavitcher Rebbe Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902–1994) as well as with Chabad–Lubavitch in general.
The name of the book is "Rabbi Hutner and Rebbe" (Jewish Enrichment Press, 2019) that is unique in many ways.
Firstly because there are virtually hardly any biographies or books about Rav Hutner while there are a variety of books published about the Lubavitcher Rebbe since he passed away in 1994.
Secondly, it is a highly controversial matter to write about a great non-Hasidic Lithuanian-style rabbi and Rosh Yeshiva such as Rav Hutner having an intimate relationship with both the last and seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe as well as with the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn (1880–1950).
Thirdly, what makes this matter so important is that Rav Hutner and both Lubavitcher Rebbes were key personalities in the rebuilding of Torah Judaism in America after the Holocaust.
Fourthly, it is truly a wonder that in a book about Rav Hutner and the Rebbe, so many important biographical details about Rav Hutner himself should emerge as a result of the author's meticulous research.
The book has the written commendations of Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet Rothkoff (born 1937) a Professor at Yeshiva University's Caroline & Joseph Gruss Institute in Jerusalem, Israel and of Dr. David B. Levy Chief Librarian at Touro-Lander College for Women, New York City, USA.
The following is a brief summary of the first half of the book's chapters:
1. Respectful Differences: From their first encounter in 1929 at the University of Berlin and at the home of Rav Chaim Heller (1879–1960) in Berlin; subsequently coming to Brooklyn and even learning together over a span of three years (1948–1951); and their written debate in 1967 regarding Lubavitchers putting on Tefillin (phylacteries) with Israeli soldiers and other non-observant Jews, notwithstanding all of these complex encounters and even disagreements, at the end of it all, towards the end of his life Rabbi Hutner said that the Rebbe was a friend whom he felt comfortable conversing with, about anything.
Rabbi Hutner also attended some of the previous Rebbe's, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn's 1940s Farbrengens ("celebrations') and meals in Brooklyn. Even though Rav Hutner would caution his own students not to attend the later Rebbe's Farbrengens, one could say that there was no offense intended in Rabbi Hutner's instructions that his students avoid participating in the Rebbe's Farbrengens. Rabbi Hutner, a master educator, a student of a great educator, Rav Noson Tzvi Finkel (1849–1927) known as the Alter ("elder") of Slabodka, learned from his teacher that a student must have total and unconditional subservience to his teacher. And if that is lacking, the entire educational foundation is tenuous. The Rebbe did not take this personally. On the contrary, when a time of emergency came he prayed for Rav Hutner and his family.
In 1970 Rabbi Hutner, his wife Masha, daughter Bruria and her husband Rabbi Yonoson David with many other Jews that were on a plane from Israel to America were hijacked to Jordan by an Arab terrorist group. At a Farbrengen at that time during the captivity, the Rebbe said that the captives need Godly intervention for a miraculous salvation. It was also the Yohrtzeit ("commemorating the day of death") of the MAHARAL of Prague Rabbi Yehuda Loew ben Betzalel (1512–1609) whose teachings Rav Hutner had popularized. The Rebbe said: "May the merit of the Maharal help those who are passionate about the teachings of the Maharal. May he experience a miracle, a revealed miracle and a miracle above nature to save him and everyone else." The Rebbe also alluded to it being a decree from above in saying that the regular way God impacts the world is restricted for the captives. Less than ten days later Rabbi Hutner and all the others were freed. The Rebbe took personal interest in Rabbi Hutner's safety. A few months after he returned to safety, Rabbi Hutner had a private audience, known as Yechidus ("private audience") with the Rebbe.
2. Slabodka and Lubavitch: To compare and contrast Rabbi Hutner and the Rebbe, it is helpful to look at the contrasting education they received as teenagers and young adults. Rabbi Hutner received home tutoring and then attended the Slabodka yeshiva, known as Yeshivas Knesses Yisrael, from 1921 to 1929. He was fifteen when he started and twenty three when he left. From 1921 to 1925 he was with the yeshiva in Slabodka, in Russia/Lithuania and from 1925 to 1929 he was with the yeshiva in Hebron, British Mandate of Palestine. The Lubavitcher Rebbe did not study in a yeshiva for older teenagers and young adults but as a boy went to Cheder (Torah school for young boys) and had private Melamdim (tutors).
When Rabbi Hutner was in Slabodka in Hebron from 1925 to 1929 he would visit Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1865–1935) in Jerusalem and when he returned to Jerusalem as a married man in 1933, the first time he visited Rabbi Kook, Rabbi Kook made a special "Shehecheyanu" blessing upon seeing Rabbi Hutner. Rabbi Moshe Tzvi Neria (1913–1995) quotes Rabbi Hutner as saying: "Rabbi Kook opened up for me the importance and understanding of the MAHARAL of Prague's teachings. If I had not met Rabbi Kook I would be missing fifty percent of my personality. Rabbi Kook was a GRA (Vilna Gaon, 1720–1797) student. A person's stature is similar to a house that has upper and lower foundations; my foundation 'floor' is the Alter of Slabodka (Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, 1849–1927) and my upper 'floor' is Rabbi Kook."
Was Rabbi Hutner a Hasid or a Litvak? He was a Litvak who appreciated Hasidic teachings and culture, yet was very much part of the non-Hasidic Litvish yeshiva world. The people he was close to were mostly non-Hasidic Litvish Roshei Yeshiva and rabbis. The notable exception was the Lubavitcher Rebbe with whom he had, at times what seemed at least outwardly to be, a tumultuous relationship. Rabbi Hutner was a highly complicated person. As an example, his creative mind found the MAHARAL's teachings as a base for his creativity. He did not see himself as a student of the MAHARAL, rather as a continuation of the MAHARAL. Possibly, Rabbi Hutner felt an obligation to his teacher Rabbi Kook and the larger Jewish world that he can and should share the MAHARAL's gold with everyone. He succeeded in this endeavor. The fact is, no one else did this on the level he did. His Maamaraim ("lectures') were the embodiment of the MAHARAL's teachings. The Rebbe, in stating in public that Rabbi Hutner is passionate about the MAHARAL's teachings, lauded him as a serious disciple of the MAHARAL.
3. Students vs. Chasidim: Rabbi Dalfin, the author of "Rabbi Hutner and Rebbe" stresses the great differences between the Rav-Talmid (teacher-student) relationship in the non-Hasidic Litvish yeshiva type of educational system that Rabbi Hutner grew and worked in versus that of the Rebbe-Hasid relationship typical of Hasidism in the world that the Lubavitcher Rebbe lived in, stressing that a Litvish Rav (also known as a "Rebbi", with an "i") is not equivalent to a Hasidic Rebbe! However, when Rabbi Dalfin writes that Rabbi Hutner excelled in creating students who were dedicated to him with heart and soul nevertheless they were not his Hasidim because he was not a Hasidic Rebbe, he (Rabbi Dalfin) misses the mark.
Certainly Rav Hutner would have loathed the English word "students" and would rather have used the Hebrew/Yiddish word "Talmidim" which does translate in English into "students" but carries a far deeper and profounder meaning in the original Hebrew/Yiddish. Similarly Rav Hutner would also have despised using the word "teachers" in connection with those who give over and disseminate the Torah to others. Rather than using the word "teachers" Rav Hutner would have insisted on using the word Rav or Rebbi (in the singular) or Rebbeim (plural) for what would commonly be called "teachers" in English. Just as Rav Hutner would not tolerate calling his disciples by their English given names but insisted that they be called by their Hebrew Jewish names, likewise in describing his own educational and pedagogical philosophy and methods Rav Hutner would never in a thousand years either use or give consent to be described as a mere "teacher" and his disciples as lowly "students"!
Right off the bat when Rabbi Dalfin writes this chapter, he uses the word "Students" to describe the non-Hasidic Lithuanian yeshiva men, while using the word "Chasidim" to describe followers of Chabad and the Chabad Rebbes. Rabbi Dalfin goes to great lengths in describing the Rebbe-Hasid relationship and uses the correct Hebrew/Yiddish terms for that phenomenon, but unfortunately uses the incorrect English moniker "teacher-student" to describe the non-Hasidic Lithuanian yeshiva Bochurim (young men) in their yeshivas.
The Rav-Talmid relationship is a key feature and foundation of not just the modern day non-Hasidic Lithuanian yeshiva system but goes back to Biblical times, and as the Mishna states "Moshe received the Torah from [God at Mount] Sinai and handed it over to Yehoshua..." (Pirkei Avot 1:1) who was his disciple, meaning Moses was the original Rebbi and Joshua was the Talmid! If anything, Rabbi Dalfin's descriptions of the latter-day Rebbe-Hasid bond was more typical of Rav Hutner's relationships with his disciples, more so than any other Rosh Yeshivas in the modern age. Rav Hutner was able to straddle many worlds and those surrounding him were part of many concentric circles that were multidimensional. On the outskirts were perhaps those Talmidim that may have appeared as no more than "students" and Rav Hutner as a distant "teacher" but as one closed in and got closer to the center of the circles the atmosphere was more like that between a "Hasidic Rebbe" and his "Hasidim".
4. Cultural Differences: This chapter deals with the stark differences between Rav Hutner and the Lubavitcher Rebbe in so many ways. While Rav Hutner was from Warsaw Poland, and remained a "Poilisher" all his life even though he was a disciple of the non-Hasidic Lithuanian Slabodka Yeshiva headed by the Alter of Slabodka. Warsaw at the time of Rav Hutner's childhood was a very progressive city where the Haskala (Jewish Enlightenment) and Zionism were very popular among its Jews.
Rav Hutner became and was the consummate Rosh Yeshiva, preparing students to learn Torah in depth and develop good character traits or to become Torah-observant lay people. He was very guarded and private with most people including relatives. Rav Hutner was very secretive about himself and his personal life stemming from either his Polish cultural upbringing or by emulating the primary mentor of his youth the Alter of Slabodka who used to sign his name by reversing his initials to read HATZAFUN ("the hidden one") emulated by Rav Hutner so much so that Rav Hutner disliked attending fundraising dinners and conventions. In other differences, Rav Hutner would leave his home base in Brooklyn to his summer home at the coast or in the Catskills and eventually left his flock of students in Brooklyn and made Aliya settling in Israel towards the end of his life where he passed away and was buried.
On the other hand the Lubavitcher Rebbe was born and raised in small towns ("shtetels") of the Ukrainian part of the Russian Empire and later the Soviet Union. He lived mostly at home until the age of twenty four and came from a devout Lubavitch rabbinical family connected to the distinguished Chabad-Lubavitch royal dynasty of the Schneerson (or "sohn" with an "h"). family. His learning style was in the traditional Chabad manner. Once he came to America he basically never left Brooklyn and not once did he ever visit Israel. Russian Jews are supposedly more gregarious and outgoing and open by nature compared to Polish Jews. Although the Lubavitcher Rebbe stayed put in Brooklyn, he sent his Hasidim out all over the world as Shluchim ("emissaries") including to Israel, while most of Rav Hutner's disciples remained in Brooklyn and America. The Lubavitcher Rebbe passed away in America and was buried in Queens, New York, next to his father in law the sixth and previous Lubavitcher Rebbe.
5. Correspondence: Rabbi Hutner had an undeniable genuine interest and curiosity in Chabad Hasidism, its literature, teachers and teachings. Rabbi Hutner became very close with the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn who praised Rabbi Hutner highly, and with the seventh and last Lubavitcher Rebbe Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who became a weekly study partner, after they arrived in Brooklyn in the early 1940s. From 1951 onwards Rabbi Hutner and Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson kept up a lively correspondence covering all manner of Torah topics. The correspondence between the Rebbe and Rabbi Hutner and vice versa displays a profound respectable relationship in personal, communal and Torah issues.
In the Rebbe, Rabbi Hutner found an individual with whom he could easily discuss ideas in Zohar, Kabbala, Chasidus, Chakira, Jewish Philosophy and MAHARAL. At certain points the author of the book "Rabbi Hutner and Rebbe", Rabbi Chaim Dalfin, inserts comments suggesting that just as Rav Hutner studied Tanya, that is the magnum opus of Chabad-Lubavitch, and other related Chabad literature and the printed discourses of the various Lubavitcher Rebbers, that therefore so should present-day non-Hasidic Lithuanian yeshiva students and certainly students at the Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin that Rav Hutner headed, study those same Chabad works as well. While this may make superficial sense it ignores the harder realities of the times Rav Hutner lived in and what has transpired since then.
Firstly, the majority of the non-Hasidic Lithuanian-type yeshiva world that exists today mainly in Israel and America are not in any way disciples of Rav Hutner and have nothing to do with the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. Some are even very openly antagonistic to the Lubavitchers and accuse some of them of practicing false "messianism".
Secondly, in this regard, Rav Hutner was "the exception that proves the rule" because even during his own lifetime, as even Rabbi Dalfin admits, Rav Hutner was a unique Rosh Yeshiva who incorporated thoughts systems that were never part of the historical Litvish yeshiva world. Rav Hutner incorporated what he learned from Rav Kook in his younger years in Israel as well as from the Lubavitcher Rebbes in America and from many other sources and streams of Torah thought. This was not done by the other non-Hasidic Lithuanian Rosh Yeshivas and certainly not by their disciples and followers today.
Thirdly, Rav Hutner was what historians call a "transition figure" who linked not just the past with the future, but linked up diverse and even contradictory streams of Torah Judaism in an attempt to rebuild the Torah world in America and Israel after the terrible destruction and losses of the Holocaust years. The same cannot be said of his disciples who only knew and accepted Rav Hutner as their main source of Torah learning. Rav Hutner was someone who learned from various sources and can be called a "polymath" meaning that he was a person with a wide range of knowledge across many different disciplines since he actively sought information from diverse sources.
6. Gadlus Ha'adam vs. Bitul Ha'adam: In this chapter the author Rabbi Chaim Dalfin seems to struggle to find his exact footing and orientation to his subjects seemingly because the subject matter is elusive and very difficult to nail down. Rav Yitzchok Hutner (1906–1980) and the seventh and last Lubavitcher Rebbe Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902–1994), were raised and educated in their own unique Torah educational worlds. For Rav Hutner it started with home-schooling until 15, and then formally with the Slabodka Yeshiva and for Rabbi Schneerson it started with his Lubavitch home-schooling that continued into adulthood.
Yet both took on independent roads in young adulthood to continue with and add to their early learning and intellectual growth in Torah and secularly. In trying to explain to his readers the various Torah schools of thought and the instructional, scholastic, pedagogical models and systems and the Jewish moral education that influenced both of these rabbinic titans, Rabbi Dalfin looks at various key methods of teaching Jewish religious ethics, ideology, spirituality and Godliness that influenced their unique evolution into who they became and then what and how that was handed over to and impacted their disciples.
We are are told that Rav Hutner came from and was attached to a Gadlus Ha'adam ("greatness of man") approach, while the Lubavitcher Rebbe is from another school of thought and behavior called Bitul Ha'adam ("negation of man") but Rabbi Dalfin fails to make his case authoritatively and nail it all down. This is because these are Torah systems of human thought, behavior, emotion, spirituality and Godliness that in their essence defy absolute description, explanation, encapsulation and categorization. They must be lived and experienced to be understood and known.
After all, how are we, including the author Rabbi Dalfin, to make concrete heads or tails of sublime notions such as Gadlus Ha'adam (Gadlus), Bitul Ha'adam (Bitul), Shiflus Ha'adam ("lowliness of man") (Shiflus)? Or, that while supposedly the Gadlus approach leads to "micromanaging" people whereas the Bitul style gives more independence to the student, follower and adherent hence "macromanaging" him. Meaning to say that Rav Hutner's disciples were "micromanaged" while the Lubavitcher Rebbe's disciples were "macromanaged" which is just not a true and realistic conclusion simply because at the end of the day neither Rav Hutner nor the Lubavitcher Rebbe's leadership styles can be so simply pegged and pigeonholed because each shows signs of the results of the other's methodology.
In hindsight, over more than forty years since Rav Hutner's passing and thirty years after the Lubavitcher Rebbe's passing, with most of their original disciples either no longer alive or facing old age, one can look back and assess the legacies and histories of what shaped them both, how they functioned as Haredi rabbinic spiritual leaders in their own lifetimes at their peak, and then seeing what they left behind in terms of schools of devotees who follow in their footsteps.
We clearly see that all schools of thought and every method that was was invented, and taking into consideration differences in human personalities and human nature at all times and the way the world works, that within Rav Hutner's legacy one can discern things that look a lot like what Lubavitch Hasidism is ideally supposed to be, and similarly in Chabad-Lubavitch after the death of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, there is a lot that goes on that is strikingly similar to what goes on in the Haredi non-Hasidic yeshiva Torah world with a deep commitment to learning Torah in depth and serving God and the Jewish People in the face of an outside modern Jewish world that is overwhelmed with secularization, assimilation, intermarriage and loss of Jewish identity.
7. Rosh Yeshiva vs. Chasidic Rebbe: Rabbi Hutner was much more than a Rosh Yeshiva. His personality was way beyond just being the head of an institution. At his peak while he was alive he was the head of a movement, of a school of thought that was a system of education and leadership not just for his flock at Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin, but for world Jewry from the late 1930s to 1980 when he passed away. In this sense he shared a leadership quality with the Lubavitcher Rebbe Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Nevertheless, Rav Hutner was not a Chasidic Rebbe nor did he want to be, whereas the Lubavitcher Rebbe was not just a local Chasidic Rebbe for Chabad, rather he was the world's Rebbe. These differences among others made Rav Hutner and the Rebbe different people with different motives.
Lubavitcher Rebbes famously hosted Farbrengens ("celebrations") for their Chasidim. Rabbi Hutner had attended the Tischen ("tables" of celebration) of Gerrer Chasidim in Poland, taken there when he was a young boy by his uncle, a disciple of Kotzk, "Der Fetter (the uncle) Ben Tzion [Ostrover] Wiedenfeld" as he would sometimes fondly refer to him. In America in the 1940s Rav Hutner attended some of the Farbrengens of the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn (1880–1950). Later in life when Rav Hutner became the full-fledged Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin he led quasi-"Farbrengens/Tischen" that he would call "Mesibos" ("parties"). He used the models of the Tisch-Farbrengens as a tool to inspire his students, inculcating the holiness and sublimeness of the Jewish Holy Days.
Rabbi Hutner's personality was such that anything and anyone he perceived to be a good source to learn from, he was there. He did not look or care whether others would criticize him for going from one Jewish leader to another. As long as the person he sought out had something special to offer, he was there. We see this in his history. He started his yeshiva life learning in the famous Slabodka Yeshiva headed by Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel (1849–1927) known as the Alter ("elder") of Slabodka in 1921. He continued studying with the Slabodka Yeshiva in Hebron from 1925-1929 and while there he became close with Rav Avraham Yitzchok Kook (1865–1935). He goes to Berlin for four months and spends time listening to lectures in the University of Berlin and meeting Rav Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg (1884–1966), and younger prodigies like Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik (1903–1993) the future Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva University and Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson the future Lubavitcher Rebbe. Rav Hutner then returns to Warsaw and starts a close relationship with Rav Menachem Ziemba (1883–1943). In 1932 his great work Torat HaNazir ("Laws of the Nazirite") is published with laudatory written approbation from the great leader of Torah Jewry including Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinsky (1863–1940) who lived in Vilna, Lithuania. He married in Warsaw in 1933 to Masha Lipshitz from New York and moved to Brooklyn, New York in 1934 after spending one year in Jerusalem.
8. Lifestyle and Character: There are some interesting similarities and comparisons between the lives of Rav Hutner the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin and Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson the last Lubavitcher Rebbe. Especially when it comes to the trials and tribulations they experienced leading up to their marriages to their eventual wives and with regards to their family life and the fate of their siblings about which not much is known. For example, even though this book "Rabbi Hutner and Rebbe" reveals new information about Rav Hutner's siblings, it does not reveal any information about the Lubavitcher Rebbe's siblings.
Both Rav Hutner and the Lubavitcher Rebbe had long and complex roads and wait times until they finally got married. In the case of the Lubavitcher Rebbe his match to Chaya Mushka Schneersohn (1901–1988), the middle daughter of the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, was made in 1923 but they did not marry until 1928 in Warsaw. In 1929 they moved to Berlin and in 1933 they moved to Paris and eventually escaped to New York in 1941. Until the Lubavitcher Rebbetzin's passing in 1988 they had no children, that is so very sad.
In the case of Rav Hutner when he was in Slabodka as a teenager he became a favorite of Rav Yitzchok Isaac Sher who was the son in law of the Alter of Slabodka. Rav Hutner would eat meals at the home of the Sher family and over there met their daughter Chaya Miriam Sher whom they hoped would eventually get engaged to the young Rav Hutner. However Rav Hutner went away to study in the Slabodka Yeshiva in Chevron in 1925 and by 1929 the Shers wanted to get a final answer from him. He wanted to meet them in Berlin but they turned him down. Instead Rav Hutner went by himself to Berlin in 1929 for four months and then on to Jerusalem in 1930. In 1931 Rav Hutner returned to Warsaw where in 1933 he married Masha Lifshitz from New York and after a brief stay in Jerusalem moved to Brooklyn, New York permanently in 1934. The Hutner's had only one daughter Bruria born in 1938 and she married Rav Yonosan David in 1960 then passed away in 2023 but they had no children, which is very sad.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe was the oldest of three brothers. His middle brother Dov Ber Schneerson was murdered during the Holocaust while his youngest brother Yisroel Aryeh Leib Schneerson, who later chose to go under the name Mark Gurary, moved to Berlin in 1931 and in 1933 he moved to Tel Aviv. Two years before he passed away in 1952 he moved to England and from research into his background he was not religious but the Lubavitcher Rebbe kept up good outreach ties with him and his family. As is well known, the Lubavitcher Rebbe's father Rav Levi Yitzchok Schneerson (1878–1944) was imprisoned, tortured and exiled by the communists in Russia. Rav Hutner was the oldest of four siblings and both his parents perished in the Holocaust as well as his sister Fraida and her husband, and they were not religious. Rav Hutner's other sister Rochel never married and became a nurse practicing in England and Poland. His brother Yehoshua Menachem Hutner moved to Paris and survived the war. He too was not religious but became more religious towards the end of his life as well as his son who is religious and lives in France.
9. Legacy: Rabbi Hutner teaches that the good writing of history is honest writing. Showing a person's struggles, including struggles great rabbis, leaders and Tzadikim had, makes them stronger not weaker. It makes them human while simultaneously being holy. As ordinary readers we learn to relate to such writings because we see ourselves in them. We learn from their life experiences how to navigate our lives and our struggles. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, who was a great and holy person, also faced trials and tribulations yet transformed them by overcoming them. This encapsulates Rabbi Hutner's and the Lubavitcher Rebbe's lives and legacies. Both had challenges either in personal or communal ways yet they came out stronger. Both had opponents and both thrived because of the opposition they faced.
Both Rabbi Hutner and the Lubavitcher Rebbe came from a time and place that experienced drastic change. Both were exposed to various disciplines of sciences and culture yet both remained completely faithful to the traditions of Torah. Both grew from the challenges and this is probably one of their greatest legacies. For example, part of the legacy that they share is their negative attitude towards Sigmund Freud's (1856–1939) understanding of man. Rav Hutner stated: "Darwin brought materialism into nature; Marx brought materialism into history; and Freud brought materialism into man's soul" expounding how Freud's understanding of man destroys free will and is the antithesis of God making man in His image. Freud's philosophy being the very opponent to the Slabodka Yeshiva's Gadlus Ha'adam ("greatness of man") model which Rav Hutner exemplified hence his vehement opposition to Freud's approach.
Similarly the Lubavitcher Rebbe once wrote that: "Freud dug and dug and found that man is dominated by lust and conversely the Alter Rebbe (the first Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, 1745–1812) dug and dug and found that man is his pristine, unblemished soul." In these few words the Lubavitcher Rebbe agrees with Rav Hutner but seemingly comes from the Bitul Ha'adam ("negation of man") approach and that man is beautiful because he embodies Godliness, the soul that is full of humility and modesty and it is what drives man to greatness.
10. Understanding Opposition and Growth: Rav Hutner and the Lubavitcher Rebbe became great Jewish rabbinic leaders who had many followers. Every great man has both people who believe in him as well as opponents and each had to deal with opposition during their lives that does not detract from their greatness. Rav Hutner and the Lubavitcher Rebbe were great rabbis and leaders of the twentieth century who left an indelible impression on thousands of people. The Lubavitcher Rebbe's impact is more global because of his thousands of Shluchim ("emissaries") who spread the teachings of Chabad-Lubavitch all over the world. While Rav Hutner through his disciples, mostly in the Lithuanian yeshiva world in America and Israel, continue his legacy of Harbotzas Torah ("spreading Torah knowledge"). Rav Hutner will always be known as the foremost teacher of the MAHARAL of Prague (Rabbi Yehuda Loew ben Betzalel, 1512–1609) in modern times.
Among Rav Hutner's leading disciples were Roshei Yeshiva ("heads of yeshivas"), Hasidic leaders, and even some notable academics and professors. Similarly the Lubavitcher Rebbe influenced many Jews to be more committed to Orthodox Judaism. In the aftermath of the terrible Holocaust that had befallen world Jewry when over six million Jews were murdered and perished, paradoxically, the Jewish People came out stronger from that ordeal with total resilience. Both Rav Hutner and the Lubavitcher Rebbe started from humble beginnings in America. As leaders who had gained the respect and trust of the Jewish People they guided Jews in America and beyond to a brighter future of Torah observance and a Torah lifestyle. Both Rav Hutner and the Lubavitcher Rebbe lost close relatives in the Holocaust and both grew from the devastation rather than feeling anger and despair. The Jewish People found in both Rav Hutner, the Lubavitcher Rebbe and other great Torah leaders of true Torah greatness to be Godly agents to help the world be a better place.
