[Avodah] Telling the Truth About Great Men

[Yitzchok Levine]

The following is from RSRH's commentary on Bereishis 12: 10 - 13

10 There was a famine in the land, and Avram went down into Egypt to 
sojourn there, because the famine was severe in the land.

11 When he was close to entering Egypt, he said to Sarai, his wife: 
Look, I do know that you are a beautiful woman.

12 So when the Egyptians see you, they will say: She is his wife, and 
they will kill me, but you they will keep alive.

13 Please say that you are my sister, so that they will deal well 
with me to get to you through me, and so that, through you, I will remain
alive.

After pointing out that the RAMBAN concludes "Our father Avraham 
inadvertently committed a grave sin by placing his virtuous wife 
before a stumbling block
of iniquity because of his fear of being killed . . . His leaving the 
Land, about which he had been commanded, because of the famine was another
sin he committed." Rav Hirsh writes:

The Torah does not seek to portray our great men
as perfectly ideal figures; it deifies no man. It says of no one: "Here you
have the ideal; in this man the Divine assumes human form!" It does
not set before us the life of any one person as the model from which
we might learn what is good and right, what we must do and what we
must refrain from doing. When the Torah wishes to put before us a
model to emulate, it does not present a man, who is born of dust.
Rather, God presents Himself as the model, saying: "Look upon Me!
Emulate Me! Walk in My ways!" We are never to say: "This must be
good and right, because so-and-so did it." The Torah is not an "anthology
of good deeds." It relates events not because they are necessarily
worthy of emulation, but because they took place.

The Torah does not hide from us the faults, errors, and weaknesses
of our great men, and this is precisely what gives its stories credibility.
The knowledge given us of their faults and weaknesses does not detract
from the stature of our great men; on the contrary, it adds to their
stature and makes their life stories even more instructive. Had they
been portrayed to us as shining models of perfection, flawless and
unblemished, we would have assumed that they had been endowed
with a higher nature, not given to us to attain. Had they been portrayed
free of passions and inner conflicts, their virtues would have seemed
to us as merely the consequence of their loftier nature, not acquired
by personal merit, and certainly no model we could ever hope to
emulate.

Why is it that those who produce literature for frum readers do not 
understand this? Far too many of these books paint the great people 
of the past as having been perfect, never having a doubt, and never 
having done anything wrong. In addition, they simply omit things that 
they feel do not fit with their view of the world.

Someone recently sent me something about Rav Pam and Halloween. He 
was at Rav Pam's house one Halloween night and related that Mrs. Pam 
gave out treats to those who rang their bell. Indeed, Rav Pam did not 
switch off his outside light as many other "observant" Jews did who 
lived near him. They wanted to avoid giving to the Trick or Treaters, 
but the Pams felt it important to give them something when they rang 
their bell.

Someone to whom I sent this wrote, "You won't find this in the 
official biography of Rav Pam." I replied, "You also won't find the 
fact that he had a masters degree from City College and at one time 
taught in the secular studies department of YTV there either."

If Torah is Emes, then why are so many who claim to be committed to 
Torah so keen on hiding the Emes?



Yitzchok Levine 
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