19 kislev coming: Individual perfection is very good for bricks!
Lubavitcher Rebbe (1992):
Don't we first need to develop and perfect the individual, before hoping to make healthy communities out of him and his fellows?
But this, the Rebbe explained, is the Torah's very point: Make communities, even before you have perfect individuals. People are not bricks or gears, which must be individually forged to perfection before they can be assembled together in a constructive way. People are souls, with the potential for perfection implicit within them. And nothing brings out a soul's potential as much interacting and uniting with other souls. Imperfect individuals, brought together in love and fellowship, make perfect communities.
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1339/jewish/A-Gathering-with-the-Rebbe.htm