What is the Basis of a Rabbi's Authority? Three Case Studies: Rabbi Avraham Danzig; Rabbi Yirsrael Meir Hacohen, The Hafez Haim; Rabbi Yecheil Mechel HaLevi Epstein

The author states, "Max Weber, the well known early sociological theorist, presents us with the three classical types of leadership-traditional, charismatic, and legal-rational. I would like to suggest a fourth, namely the written word. ...I will focus on three leading Eastern European rabbinical authorities of the 19th and early 20th century whose writings both established their leadership during their lifetime, and posthumously continued to place them in the forefront of Jewish life and halakhic behavior. ...Leadership comprehended in rabbinic leadership is that of influence especially for educators. ...The rabbis discussed in this essay were all educators and thus leaders who influenced their followers both through their frontal (oral) lectures and their written works."