The matter depends neither on the luminaries of Israel nor on the tzaddikim of the generations, neither on our great sages nor on our national leaders.
It depends on one man who, after years of spiritual work, steps outside for the first time.
He begins to see how the whole world hangs in the balance over him, how all of existence hinges on him.
Although, like the ladder in Jacob’s dream, his feet stand on actual ground, perhaps even entrenched in the earth, his head reaches up toward heaven.
There alone is the limit.
–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz