ABSTRACT
Charismatic personalities fill Jewish history, from Moses to Herzl, King David to Bialik, Bar-Kokhba to the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Rabbinic Judaism, with its memory of the disastrous revolts of 66–70 and 132–135 CE, is ambivalent toward charismatic leadership, and opposed to the cult of personality. The rabbis generally took the view, as Lord Acton put it, that ‘Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely’. As poor leadership was a major factor in the destruction of the Jewish state, the rabbis gave much thought to the qualities of leaders, both good and bad, how they should be chosen, and their power curbed. The rabbis followed the biblical prophets in condemning corrupt or ineffective leadership. In the twentieth century, the wariness in Judaism toward cults of personality proved to be fully justified as millions of people gave uncritical support to tyrannical mass murderers such as Hitler, Stalin and Mao.
