https://torahinmotion.org/podcast/the-making-of-my-most-recent-book-a-thirty-year-story-part-42 50:30
https://torahinmotion.org/podcast/the-making-of-my-most-recent-book-a-thirty-year-story-part-43 21:50
"(Reflecting on a long letter that the Lubavitcher Rebbe wrote to Professor Marc Shapiro's father, who is a historian) It shows you that someone he just met for a few minutes, but in writing a letter he's cognizant, he could have written just a short little letter, thank you, he goes into pages, expounding on this (that we have an advantage over earlier generations in having living proof of faith through Jewish history). And he had to think about this when he wrote it. That's the greatness of the Rebbe. Unfortunately, many people don't see this. They are always looking for negatives. What can you say about the Rebbe? He created a revolution in Judaism. So every time you have a revolution, you have certain dark spots and unfortunate things. (Shapiro had talked earlier about mashichist shluchim in India and Rutgers College). But what he accomplished in terms of the Jewish world, no one came close. And to the Rebbe's credit, and the Litvish don't like this but it's the truth, the Litivsh who were so opposed to kiruv and all these things, Shlomo Carlebach had to leave Lakewood because of that, now of course they are leaders in it, it's all because of the success of Chabad. If Chabad had not gotten into it, they never would have. And they do the exact same thing that Chabad did. They are in all these colleges now, the Litvish Charedim, and what do they do? They ask people, are you Jewish? Come, we're having a seder, we're having this and that. They do the same thing that Chabad did. Chabad I guess had to break the ice on it. This is the vision of the Rebbe. And there's a lot that can be said about the Rebbe, and just because you have some crazy shulchim in certain places, that doesn't take away from all the great things that shluchim do and what the Rebbe did.
And the Rebbe's a thinker. Elliot Wolfson could not have, Elliot Wolfson who's so erudite, he's written so much, he's wouldn't have written a whole book on the Rebbe's kabbalistic ideas if the Rebbe wasn't a great thinker. And the fact that it's hard to understand one page of that book because all the jargon it's written in, derida and all this stuff, post-modern stuff, doesn't take away from the fact that the Rebbe is not just a doer, he's also a thinker. And most thinkers are not doers and most doers are not thinkers. So the Rebbe is special. "
Professor Marc Shapiro https://torahinmotion.org/podcast/the-making-of-my-most-recent-book-a-thirty-year-story-part-43 28:35 - 30:02