Our Cultural Hero

This week, we witnessed how over three hundred thousand people left their daily routines suddenly and without prior notice, without any personal gain, simply leaving everything to go up to Jerusalem. They crowded into the narrow streets of the old and traditional Mea Shearim neighborhood all for the sake of accompanying an elderly Jew to his final resting place.

Myriads of people, most of whom he did not know at all, with no direct connection to him, expected no reward from his relatives. Yet, there was a palpable sense of orphanhood on their faces, a sense of difficulty facing what the future holds.

Once, I heard a wise saying from an Israeli media person after the passing of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt"l, during whose funeral a similar number of people participated. He said, "Here, beyond the fence lived a modest man whom we did not know, yet three hundred thousand people came to pay their last respects. Either three hundred thousand people blindly follow a gray figure, or we are the fools for not having the sense to know and understand who this man was—and probably the latter part of the sentence is more accurate."

In such a shiny and well-publicized world where cultural heroes and idols manage to fill concert halls with adoring crowds, where anything glittery and wealthy is considered more revered and a model to emulate, whose images adorn the rooms of idolizing teenagers—if only they knew even a bit of his character and lifestyle, they would tear down those pictures and toss them proudly into the recycle bin, until wrinkles and gray hair overtakes their fame. Then those idols are thrown into the trash heap of history, and a new "star" is born, usually more hollow and desirous, typically with no values worth emulating.

And there, just around the street corner, live people whose cultural heroes reside in a cramped apartment of one and a half rooms with ten children. Yet this does not stop people from lingering at that doorstep, crowding at that threshold in hopes of catching a glimpse inside, perhaps seeking advice from that person—what will they see? A person from the past century with not even a single Facebook friend? What wisdom can they gain from there when this elderly man can't even navigate Google?!

Seemingly, in terms of modern times, yet to here come so many important people, men of letters and science, even those from the other end of the road who have tasted life's pleasures, who suddenly seem to not understand wealth or style? They come and "descend" from their importance to visit and humble themselves before that elderly figure so ancient that he doesn't even hold a high school diploma?!

A famous story is told about Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky, one of the great yeshiva leaders in America, who on one of his flights to the US sat next to a secretary from an organization who, by appearance, had no ties to tradition and religion. During the flight, this person was amazed at Rabbi Kamenetsky's grandson, who frequently approached his grandfather to ask if he wanted to drink or eat or needed anything, truly like a servant before his master. With amazement, he asked the rabbi, "Tell me! How is it that your grandson respects and values you so much, while in our culture, I am the one expected to serve my grandchild a drink?"

Rabbi Kamenetsky responded plainly, "Simply! You educate your children that man descended from the ape, so as each generation distances from the ape, they are indeed wiser! Smarter! More human. So it's no wonder that you are the one who should honor your grandchild because they are more human than you!

But we, who keep Torah and tradition, educate our children that as years go by, we distance ourselves from that awesome and exalted moment, from the light of Hashem's revelation at Mount Sinai. Therefore, as years pass, we move further from that moment when we were crowned as the Chosen People—so is it any wonder my grandson honors me so greatly!

This idea is interwoven in the words of our Sages, " if the first ones are like angels, then we are like humans—and if the first ones are like humans, then we are like donkeys." Meaning, only a donkey thinks the previous generation is equally human in stature and quality as they are, because indeed there is no difference between a donkey of today and one from a thousand years ago—a donkey remains a donkey. But if we understand our predecessors as angels, then we are humans, meaning if we understand the previous generations as akin to angels, then we are human and not, heaven forbid, donkeys!

This is the secret that propelled hundreds of thousands of people to escort and pay their last respects to the man who connected and bound our generation with the previous generation of knowledge, a man who stood firm to preserve and fend off any breach, a man who knew people of stature who were closer to those who experienced divine revelations at Mount Sinai, a man who understood that the world is but a corridor before the palace!

His home was not simple; it sparkled brilliantly with books and writings that, like him, connected and unified us with that generation closer than us to the event at Mount Sinai, to the event where the Creator of the Universe appeared before all living!

This is the secret—a stranger will not understand it!

A stranger won't grasp how such clarity and purity can make momentous decisions! A stranger won't comprehend how a nearly hundred-year-old man sits with sweetness and tenderness studying the same Gemara that his ten-year-old great-grandson learns, as if he has no other pleasure but this! In which country, on which continent, is there a math book that a third-grade child studies alongside a learned professor, and both do not feel the book is beyond them?!

It is nothing but the Torah of Life!

The Torah of Life that is not born of a human being but a divine creation, a Torah of Life that shapes the character of our way of life, a Torah of Life that obliges each of us to delve into its pages and secrets at every available moment.

Such was this man who was connected all his days to the book, who was privileged to delight in its pages, who merited growing wise and guiding his way of life according to the book!

This is our cultural hero, whom we wished to show our children as a role model!