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From
<a href="http://www.jewishideas.org/print/783" eudora="autourl">
http://www.jewishideas.org/print/783</a><br><br>
<font size=3>By Rabbi Marc D. Angel <br><br>
Some years ago, I had a conversation with a Hassidic Jew who assured me
that his Rebbe never committed any sins. He stated with certainty that
his Rebbe was endowed with a grand and holy soul, far superior to the
soul of any other people.<br><br>
When I pointed out to him that even Moses committed sins, he flatly
denied that this was so. I reminded him that the Torah itself reports
Moses’s shortcomings. He said: You do not understand the Torah! It is
impossible that Moses could have done anything wrong. He was perfect in
every way.<br><br>
The conversation came to an end, with both of us unhappy with the result.
He felt I did not demonstrate enough faith in the perfection of saintly
personalities, and I felt he was guilty of distorting the Torah’s words
and distorting the reality of the human condition.<br><br>
This conversation came to mind recently when I received an email from a
colleague, in which he included some important passages by Rabbi Samson
Raphael Hirsch. The comments related specifically to stories reported in
Parashat Lekh Lekhabut Rabbi Hirsch’s point is of general relevance to
our study of Torah…and to our evaluation of saintly individuals.<br><br>
The Torah relates various problematic narratives about Abraham. For
example, when going to Egypt, Abraham feared that the Egyptians would
murder him and take his wife Sarah. Abraham told Sarah to say she was his
sister, rather than his wife. In spite of (or because of!) this
deception, Sarah was taken to Pharaoh. Abraham was given rewards and he
thrived in Egypt. When God punished Pharaoh and when Pharaoh realized
that Sarah was really Abraham’s wife, Pharaoh expressed outrage to
Abraham over the deception. Pharaoh expelled Abraham and Sarah, who left
Pharaoh’s domain with much wealth.<br><br>
This story surely does not cast Abraham in a good light. He asked his
wife to participate in a deception. He let his wife be taken by the
Egyptians. He reaped financial rewards while his wife was in captivity in
Pharaoh’s house.<br><br>
Rabbi Hirsch makes a profoundly important point: “The Torah does not
attempt to hide from us the faults, errors and weaknesses of our great
men, and precisely thereby it places the stamp of credibility upon the
happenings it relates. The fact that we are told about their faults and
weaknesses does not detract from our great men. Indeed, it adds to their
stature and makes their life stories even more instructive. Had they all
been portrayed to us as models of perfection we would have believed that
they had been endowed with a higher nature not give to us to attain. Had
they been presented to us free of human passions and inner conflicts,
their nature would seem to us merely the result of a loftier
predisposition, not a product of their personal merit, and certainly no
model we could ever hope to emulate.”<br><br>
Rabbi Hirsch goes on to say that “we must never attempt to whitewash the
spiritual and moral heroes of our past. They are not in need of our
apologetics, nor would they tolerate such attempts on our part. Truth is
the seal of our Word of God, and truthfulness is the distinctive
characteristic also of all its genuinely great teachers and
commentators.”<br><br>
Our great biblical heroes, as well as our great spiritual heroes of all
generations, were real human beings, not plaster saints. They had
real feelings, real conflicts. Many times they performed admirably; on
some occasions they fell short. To suggest that anyone is
“perfect”totally devoid of sin and erroris to misrepresent that person
and to misrepresent truth.<br><br>
There is a popular genre of “religious literature” that presents
biographies of biblical and later religious luminaries as paragons of
virtue, totally devoid of sin and inner conflict. In fact, such books are
not authentic biographies, because they describe their heroes in an
untruthful way. These personalities are drawn in such superlative terms,
that readers will find it exceedingly difficult to identify with them or
to emulate them. <br><br>
There is an opposite tendency in some circles to point to every flaw and
sin of our spiritual heroes, and to undermine their credibility as
religious models. Our prophets and teachers are presented as though
devoid of higher spiritual and moral qualities.<br><br>
Just as it is false to overstate the perfection of our heroes, so it is
false to undervalue their spiritual achievements. Rather, we must study
their lives honestly, recognizing that these are remarkable individuals
who reached great heightsand who had to struggle mightily to attain
their levels of religious insight and righteousness. Their failings
can be as instructive to us as their successes.<br><br>
Just as Truth is the seal of the Word of God, so is the pursuit of Truth
the proper objective of all students of Torah and Jewish tradition.<br>
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