RAV HUTNER'S VIEW OF BIOGRAPHIES
Rav Elimelech Biderman cites a letter written by Rav Yitzchok Hutner as an example of true chizuk that inspires us when we are down, that uplifts and strengthens us:
Often, when we study the biographies of Gedolim and tales of Tzaddikim, we imagine that they simply sprang up and appeared as accomplished Tzaddikim with no blemishes, imperfections or struggles. We do not realize that the opposite is true – that we are adopting a false notion by skipping over the entire portion of their lives that contains the tales of growth, stumbling, struggle and sheer failure. The difference between them and us, teaches the Pachad Yitzchok (Vol.1 Igros 128) is not that we struggle and fail and they did not. On the contrary, the difference is that they grew and achieved and got up and continued – even after failures and struggles. They were strengthened by adversity – but we give up.
In fact, it is not the struggles and failures that separate and contrast us – those very struggles and failures are where we find the greatest common denominator. It is in the struggles and failures where we are most similar to and most resemble the Gedolim and Tzaddikim! We all praise and wonder at the Chofetz Chaim’s mastery of his tongue and purity of his speech – but who knows the battles he waged, the failures and struggles that that Tzaddik went through before he reached his lofty level and overcame his Yetzer Hora? And this is just one example from among thousands!
The result of such mistaken assumptions is that when bright, healthy, strong-willed individuals find themselves faced with failures, difficulties, obstacles and struggles, they imagine that they –and only they – are the losers and failures, that only such lowly, despicable people such as they struggle with the kinds of desires and passions that they deal with. Truthfully, we can tell them, “We sympathize and empathize with your pain and suffering, but you must know that that pain and suffering is what ultimately builds and shapes you and engenders growth and greatness.”
This is the path leading to gadlus. Some people think that Shlomo HaMelech’s message, in declaring that a Tzaddik falls seven times and gets up (Mishlei 24:16), is that he rises again despite his failures. This is a mistake. What the wisest of men was saying was that through his failures he rises again! The seven falls of the Tzaddik are themselves what create his meteoric rise to great heights! So do not imagine the Godol and Tzaddik with a pure Yetzer; rather remember that he too has a Yetzer Hora that he overcame. This is what you have in common with the Gedolim and Tzaddikim – and this is what you can also do to strive to reach greatness yourself.
20TH KISLEV 5761, HIS TWENTIETH YAHRTZEIT
By Avrohom Hacohen Ehrentreu
Introduction
By Moshe Musman
Twenty years after his petiroh, HaRav Hutner's Torah is as eagerly sought as ever. The volumes of his Pachad Yitzchok are treasured by those who possess and pore over them, their message casting brilliant illumination onto the fundamental obligations of the Jewish soul and the seasons of the Jewish year. HaRav Hutner was one of the handful of individuals who were destined by Hashgochoh to rebuild, or more correctly, to bring new life to, Torah and Yiddishkeit in the postwar world. He raised a generation of rabbonim and mechanchim, whose work in Eretz Yisroel and the United States bears the distinctive stamp of his thought and approach.
His uniqueness lay not in his role as a public leader but in the depth, the richness and the brilliance of his personality. He defies classification. It is even hard to discuss him within our usual terms of reference. Ideally, his own thought and expressions should be employed for the task.
His chassidishe roots and background, and the formative years that he subsequently spent in the great yeshivos of Slobodke and Chevron, would make any analysis of his greatness a daunting and precarious task. The crucial factor to bear in mind when appraising him is his originality. Whether he was delivering one of his famous ma'amorim, discoursing on Jewish history, counselling talmidim, or formulating an approach to one of the issues facing the klal, the depth of his penetration, the breadth of his scope and perspective and the beautiful way in which he expressed himself, always resulted in new insights and new content and brought a new light to bear upon the subject at hand.
A godol beYisroel he was, in every sense of the phrase - - a giant in Torah knowledge, in character and in spirit, and a leader of his people -- yet he essentially remained a private person. In his case we are more keenly aware than usual of what is probably true of all men of his stature. Though they may live in the public eye, that part of them which remains hidden far exceeds that which is revealed and is open to our observation. We quickly realize that any picture that we may try to build up, using as our materials the shafts of light that flashed from his soul in the form of his deeds, speech or writings, is woefully inadequate and falls far short of the mark.
A related idea, which HaRav Hutner himself expressed at the end of a hesped he delivered for HaRav Aharon Kotler zt'l, is as follows: "There have been gedolim whose stature as individuals was fully in proportion to the dimensions of their mission to their generation. There have been gedolim of towering stature, whose mission to their generation nevertheless did not reflect their personal greatness. On the other hand, there have been gedolim whose mission to their generation was in excess of their personal stature."
HaRav Hutner placed HaRav Kotler in the first category and he himself belongs there too. Yet Reb Aharon's work was more in the public eye and the gadlus which he showed was of a type that the public could readily appreciate. While HaRav Hutner was likewise called upon to utilize all of his great gifts and qualities in serving the tzibbur, the nature of what he revealed was such that there was clearly much more that was concealed.
While the true dimension of his spiritual vision and the full iridescence of his soul must remain hidden from us, we have to share what we can with those who have not yet encountered his thought or experienced the emotions inspired by his ideas -- by his exposition of the soul of Yiddishkeit in past, present and future, the throbbing pulse of Knesses Yisroel and in its eternal yearning for its Creator. Our final message to the reader echoes the sentiment of the declaration made by the Kohen Godol after krias haTorah on Yom Kippur (Yoma perek 7): Much more than what is presented here still lies before you!
What is Machshovoh?
How do we classify machshovoh, Jewish thought? Is it aimed only at the intellect or also at the heart? Does it merely aim to present a systematic classification of the ideas and thoughts that have inspired servants of Hashem throughout the centuries?
If that is all, then it is almost certain to be a dry, lifeless discipline. It may provide intellectual stimulation or even satisfaction, but by itself, it is highly unlikely to inspire its devotees with the same emotions that moved the great men whose work it treats.
