[Avodah] Even More on How the Torah Portrays Great Men

[Yitzchok Levine]

Rabbi Nosson Kamenetsky discusses different views about relating 
stories about great men of previous generations that may contain 
negative incidents. He writes in the Forward to the Improved Edition 
of the Making of a Godol:

I came across a striking disagreement between two famous brothers on 
the subject of stories about great men of previous generations. R' 
Shimon Schwab in his Selected Writings. defines the difference 
between history and "storytelling" in that the first must be 
"truthful, and unsparing of even the failings of the righteous". R' 
Schwab asserts eloquently that "a realistic historic picture" will 
reveal "inadequacies" which will "rightfully make a lot of people 
angry" and that "no ethical purpose is served by preserving" such a 
picture; he contends that we must "put a veil over the human failings 
of our forebears and glorify all the rest which is great and 
beautiful (emphasis added)". In other words, he favors "storytelling" 
over "history". He coins an adage: "We do not need realism: we need 
inspiration from our forefathers." That author's brother, R' Mordkhai 
Schwab, however, had a negative view of "story tell-when he told me, 
"The Satmarer Rav, R' Yoilish Teitelbaum, never told 'stories ' 
because he said, 'You cannot educate through lies [shekar].''' R' 
Mordkhai agreed with R' Yoilish in reference to stories intended to 
glorify their principals while dehumanizing them.

I have put all of what R. Nosson wrote about this topic at 
http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/moag_forward.pdf

Yitzchok Levine 
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