In the mid-1950s, Reform rabbi and author Herbert Weiner traveled the world to meet with leading Jewish leaders. In yechidus with the Rebbe, he asked about what he saw among the Lubavitcher chassidim he met, later recording the conversation in his book.

“Isn’t the fact that Chassidim turn to the Rebbe for almost every decision in their lives a sign of weakness, a lack of freedom of will?” he asked.

“A weak person,” the Rebbe responded without hesitation, “is usually overcome by the environment in which he finds himself. But our Chassidim can be sent into any environment, no matter how strange or hostile, and maintain themselves in it. So how can we say that it is weakness which characterizes a Chassid?”

He continued to press, saying that he sensed a desire in Chabad to strip ideas of their complexity merely for the sake of a superficial clarity. “All your Chassidim seemed to have one thing in common: a sort of open and naive look in their eyes that might be interpreted as emptiness or simple-mindedness, the absence of inner struggle.”

The Rebbe showed no resentment and explained, “What you see missing from their eyes is a kera, a split.”

“I hope you will not take offense,” the Rebbe continued, “but something tells me you don’t sleep well at night. Perhaps if you had been raised wholly in one world or in another, it might be different. But this split is what comes from trying to live in two worlds.”