Let Us Make the Gedolim in our Image

"If the Party could thrust its hand into the past and say of this or that event, it never happened -- that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture and death."
-Nineteen Eighty-Four

Yated Ne'eman has a curious habit of trying to rewrite history to fit with their current ideals and philosophies. If a Godol every did or said something that ran contrary to these accepted views, Yated does everything in their power to erase that discrepancy. They will distort, fabricate or even tell outright lies in order to preserve their picture of the past. In this way, the Yated attempts to recreate the Gedolim of the past in their Chareidi image. In truth, nothing could be more insulting to the memory of these holy leaders of Israel.

1) R' Shlomo Zalman Auerbach
In a recent article, Yated had the following to say about R' Auerbach: "...unfortunately, among those who spoke and wrote about Maran following his histalkus were proponents of compromise who made empty remarks attempting to compare Maran to them, rather than the opposite."

Oh no! R' Shlomo Zalman could never have compromised, chas v'shalom chas v'shalom, on anything. Only reshayim and YU graduates compromise! If he compromised that means he may have been nice and none of the Gedolim were nice, never!

2) R' Yitzchak Hutner
In a piece describing the life of R' Hutner, one will find that this great leader of 20th century Jewry has been conveniently Chareidized. There is no mention of his extremely close relationship with R' Kook (gasp!) or his time in University at Berlin, where he studied philosophy (double gasp!).

It is interesting to compare that article with Wikipedia's biography or that of the OU. It is difficult to imagine why Yated didn't quote R' Hutner as telling R' Shlomo Farfield that the root of his own soul was the same as that of R' Kook's. Strange. Although it is well know that R' Hutner disagreed with R' Kook on many political issues, it is a tremendous disgrace to the memory of R' Hutner to somehow pretend that this relationship did not exist. But then again, when you can revise the past, it is always a good idea to edit out those inconvenient parts.

3) R' Shlomo Wolbe
What could one say to possibly describe this giant of Torah and Mussar, an amazing synthesis of Hirschian Torah-im-Derech-Eretz and Lithuanian mussar?
What praise does Yated use to sum up the accomplishments of "The Mashgiach"?

"He encouraged and attended the large gathering on Motzei Shabbos Parshas Vayigash this year, where maranan verabonon announced the ban against the use of cell phones."

How great was R' Wolbe? Well, he came to our cell phone meeting. Great. Naturally, there is no mention of his published position against avreichim continuing to learn when they lack the financial means to remain in Kollel. Nope, that never happened.