[Avodah] Another View on How to Portray People of the Past

[Yitzchok Levine]

The following is from  Haskalah, Secular Studies 
and the Close of the Yeshiva in Volozhin in 1892 
by Rabbi Dr. J. J. Schachter. The entire 
essay  may be read at 
http://www.yutorah.org/_shiurim/TU2_Schachter.pdf 
The reader may also want to see Facing the Truths 
of History at http://yuriets.yeshivalive.com/TU8_Schachter.pdf

YL

Rabbi Schacter writes, "In a recently published 
essay [R. S. Schwab, Selected Writings (Lakewood, 
1988), 234], Rabbi Shimon Schwab justified this 
neglect of history on positive ideological 
grounds rather than simply considering it as 
reflecting an avoidance of bittul Torah. His 
comments are remarkable and deserve being cited in detail:

'There is a vast difference between history and 
storytelling. History must be truthful. 
otherwise, it does not desert its name. A book of 
history must report the bad with the good, the 
ugly with the beautiful, the difficulties and the 
victories, the guilt and the virtue. Since it is 
supposed to be truthful, it cannot spare the 
righteous if he fails, and it cannot skip the 
virtues of the villain. For such is truth, all is 
told the way it happened. Only a Navi mandated by 
his Divine calling has the ability to report 
history as it really happened, unbiased and without prejudice.

Suppose one of us today would want to write a 
history of Orthodox Jewish life in pre-holocaust 
Germany. There is much to report but not 
everything is complimentary. Not all of the 
important people were flawless as one would like 
to believe and not all the mores and lifestyles 
of this bygone generation were beyond criticism. 
An historian has no right to take sides. He most 
report the stark truth and nothing but the truth. 
Now, if an historian would report truthfully what 
he witnessed, it would make a lot of people 
rightfully angry. He would violate the 
prohibition against spreading Loshon Horah which 
does not only apply to the living, but also to 
those who sleep in the dust and cannot defend themselves any more.

What ethical purpose is served by preserving a 
realistic historic picture? Nothing but the 
satisfaction of curiosity. We should tell 
ourselves and our children the good memories of 
the good people, their unshakeable faith, their 
staunch defense of tradition, their life of 
truth, their impeccable honesty, their boundless 
charity and their great reverence for Torah and 
Torah sages. What is gained by pointing out their 
inadequacies and their contradictions? We want to 
be inspired by their example and learn from their experience.

When Noach became intoxicated, his two sons Shem 
and,Japhet, took a blanket and walked into his 
tent backwards to cover the nakedness of their 
father. Their desire was to always remember their 
father as the Tzaddik Tomim  in spite of his 
momentary weakness. Rather than write the history 
of our forebears, every generation has to put a 
veil over the human failings of its elders and 
glorify all the rest which is great and 
beautiful. That means we have to do without a 
real history book. We can do without. We do not 
need realism, we need inspiration from our 
forefathers in order to pass it on to posterity.'"

Rabbi Dr. Schacter then comments,

"It is interesting that Rabbi Schwab does not 
deny that "important people" and "good people" 
have failings and inadequacies. Rather, he 
suggests that they are best overlooked and forgotten.

However, even this remarkable argument (which 
merits its own analysis) explains only the 
neglect and disregard of history: it does nor 
justify the distorting of history. While it may 
explain why one should not write about the past, 
it does not justify distorting the past when one 
does write about it. Inventing the past is as 
foolish as foretelling the future, but more scandalous.

This point was made forcefully and tellingly by 
Rabbi Joseph Elias in a review article written 
over twenty years ago. [See Joseph Elias, "Past 
and Present in the Teaching of Jewish History," 
The Jewish observer IV:8 (November, 1967), 18, 
23. The italics are by the author.]

He wrote:

... the later history of the Jew can help most 
significantly toward a proper understanding of 
our sacred heritage and of our duty here and now. 
Through it we can convey to our youth the 
principles which underline and emerge from our 
past, and their application to the problems and 
issues of our time. Let it be well understood, 
however, we must see the present in the light of 
the past and not, reversely, project the passing 
ideas of the day, its confusions and uncertainties, into the past...

If he (i.e., "the Torah historian") permits his 
values and judgements to be subject to the 
influence of his age, he will arrive at a 
distorted picture of both the Torah world and the 
secular world—and he will even project these 
distortions into that past from which he could have learned the truth."



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