The Gedolim Among Us

It's not who you might think

Last night my family had a particularly memorable meal at a restaurant. In part this was because half of us came down with food poisoning today. But it was also because of who else was there.

At first, we noticed Shai Graucher, the charedi powerhouse who raised millions of dollars to help with the war in all kind of ways. He arranged for endless supplies to be shipped in for soldiers from around the world. He arranged for laundry trucks to do twelve thousand loads of laundry for them. His organization worked with seminaries to send girls to help mothers whose husbands have been called up. They helped families of victims and families who have been evacuated from their homes. The scale of the chessed is simply mind-boggling. Yet Rav Dov Landau, the alleged “Gadol HaDor,” described him as a mazzik. Of course, outside the charedi world, people would have very different ideas about who is the great person and who is the mazzik.

Then one of my daughters whispered to me that one of the released hostages was at a table behind me. It was none other than Agam Berger with her family. We’ve all seen the remarkable picture of Agam in the helicopter with the sign that she wrote: “I have chosen the path of faith, and I return with the path of faith. Thank you to all Am Yisrael and the brave soldiers of the IDF. There are none like you in the world!”

But this is only a fraction of her greatness. If you look at the website about her (which for some reason only worked on my phone, not on my computer), you’ll learn that at the age of just 16, Agam created a vision board where she wrote, “My life story is one of faith.” And in her last call before her abduction, she reported hearing gunfire, terrorists, and everyone crying, yet she said that she was not afraid. Meanwhile, after she was taken into captivity with a bloodied face, she spent the next nearly year and half observing fast days, refusing non-kosher food, and celebrating Jewish festivals.

When I saw her last night (and we spoke for a few minutes), I was struck by how little she is. Yet this young, small girl is an absolute tower of greatness.

Greatness can be measured in different ways. In the past, I’ve quoted Rav Eliezer Melamed who plainly states that Torah scholars who lack an all-embracing, fully accountable handling of serious issues facing the generation cannot be considered Gedolei Torah.

But a reader just sent me an additional fascinating statement by Rav Eliezer Papo (1785–1828). Rav Papo is most famous for his ethical work Pele Yoetz (which has even been translated by ArtScroll, so you know it’s kosher). In his entry on Hatzala/ Rescue, he writes as follows:

If a person saves the lives of those who would have died, he has earned merit as though he has fulfilled the entire Torah. For the Sages stated that if a person saves a Jewish life, it is as though he has established an entire world. And similarly they said that even the “empty ones” of Israel are as fully of mitzvot as a pomegranate is full of seeds. For there are many among the people of Israel who may appear to be empty vessels, but they have the mitzvah of saving Jews; and with this, they outweigh and overtake even the Sages and Gedolim of Israel.

It’s ironic that many charedim believe that Gedolim only exist in the charedi world. According to Pele Yoetz, it’s actually outside the charedi world that you find even greater people - the soldiers of the IDF. Engaging in actual mesirut nefesh to save people’s lives is a far greater act than sitting in Beis HaMidrash and studying for your entire life. (And, of course, there are also plenty of people outside the charedi world who combine both.)

Blessed are we to have so many great people among us.