Rebbe's Image

Rebbe's image has been a long debated topic within the revolution. There are some who thrive on Rebbe's image as the renegade YU Rosh Yeshivah. They percieve him as the great revolutionary the Besht of our time who will bring life to wisdom instead of bringing wisdom to life. They smile from ear to ear when they overhear their fellow MYPers mocking Rebbe's tardiness to davening and wait anxiously each year to throw rubber chickens at the purim shpiel. They look to Rebbe as the great fixer and finder of lost souls. There is a story they tell to illustrate how misunderstood they and their Rebbe truly are. You see one shabbos rebbe's leichter caught on fire and Rebbe attempted to pour water around the fire and do gram kibui rather than directly put out the fire. The Rebbetzin quickly grabbed a bucket of water preventing catastrophy. After that episode Rebbe vowed any time there was even a safek pikuach nefesh he wuld be the one to violate shabbos without hesitation as a true tzadik should. Years later Rebbe's cousin had an asthma attack on shabbos and rebbe grabbed him and jumped into the car to drive him to the hospital. The windows were down and the radio was blarig from before shabbos(rebbe is the only one in the heights with enough emunah to leave his car windows down overnight) and Rebbe quickly began driving to the hospital. Rebbe got caught at a red light only to see Rabbi Cohen staring right at hm while crossing the street. (who must have been assumed it was a pikuach nefesh situation) Some feel that Rebbe needs to be truly misunderstood by his collegues, yu administration, and students to truly make his mark. There is yet another camp who is on a crusade to improve Rebbe's image as much as possible. They are Rebbe's personal PR dept. and feel that Rebbe must truly infiltrate the ranks of the Yeshivah to change the Yeshivah from within. When confronted with Rebbe haters they quickly will remind their opposition that Rebbe was the longest talmud of the Rav(over 26 years) and used to even vacation with him in cape cod. They talk of the reshimos,Rebbe's pre davening visits to help the elderly, and publicize his efforts on behalf of the jews in Israel. Who is the real Rebbe you may ask? Does Rebbe need a public image campaign? Do we feel that if people will open themselves up to here the Rebbe's torah they will be hooked? Or by repackiging Rebbe do we run the risk of comprimising the Revolution? Will it still be recognisible in 5 years if we continue on this track or will it just be anoter branch of the CJF?