Leadership of a mystical nature

Schneur Zalman of NY commenting to the Satmarer challenge:

Chazal inform us "ein chochom kebaal nisayon". History is the best yardstick by which to measure something.

In the time of the Alter Rebbe and the Tzemach Tzedek there were clearly tens and tens of thousands of Chabad Hasidim throughout Russia (perhaps as many as one hundred thousand). The next generation saw a weakening in numbers. Yet even so all the sons of the Tzemach Tzedek who were Chabad Rebbes (4) had large followings as described by contemporary maskilik accounts. Yet by 1898 and the founding of Tomchei Tmimim Lubavitch and certainly by 1918 Chabad had been seriously reduced in numbers and in influence in Russia (as had all of the orthodoxy). It clearly failed to act as a bulwark against modernity, Haskala, Zionism, Socialism and other trends in modern Judaism. In fact many Lubavitcher send their children to the new Lithuanian Yeshivas as there were very attractive to many religious Jews in Czarist Russia. Many of the most famous Yiddish literary critics and writers (Shmuel Niger, Moshe Kulback), Zionist leaders (Zalman Shazar, Kaddish Luz) and others were children of Chabad Chasidim.

By and large most of the great grand children of the Tzemach Tzedek were modern people and their children were no longer religious. The same process occurred with the Chasidim themselves. Except for Lubavitch, the other branches of Chabad died out as the children of the Rebbes refused to take on leadership of a mystical nature and remained either Rabbis or in most cases lay people.

In all of Lubavitch today there is only one Schneerson family (a father and 2 married sons) who are frum and Chabad. Most descendants of the Alter Rebbe in Chabad today are from a line that immigrated to Palestine in the early 19th century not the Schneersohn family that remained in Russia.

The RaShab created his yeshiva because he saw Chabad crumble before his eyes, i.e. the Limud of Chassiduth and Tefillaas an avoda were rapidly becoming a matter of history. Thus he created a yeshiva in a valiant attempt at preserving Chabad. Truth be told many of the scholars at Tomchei Tmimim were also Nischametz, although a majority grew into quality Chasidim. My guess is that by 1918 there were not that many serious Chabad people left in Russia under the age of 75 except for the few hundred Temimim and their families. This being true, I wonder what it is that makes the Chabad of today so confident that it has the philosophy and derech to stem intermarriage and the forces of assimilation in world Jewry today?