Working on this week’s tribute issue to two generals Reb Moshe and Reb Yaakov was a journey back to my childhood. Twenty-five years ago when Klal Yisrael sustained the loss of two larger-than-life leaders I was ten years old listening wide-eyed as rebbeim and teachers attempted by means of stories to convey the magnitude of the loss.
They were our gedolim the ones in whose shadows our childhood was shaped. Their stories were the bread and butter of our elementary school years. As we grew older their rulings hashkafic and halachic shaped policy and practice for the yeshivah world we inhabited. And when we matured we first began to realize that the fact that we’d lived at the very same time as them was itself a mandate an achrayus.
This issue called for the collective dedication of the Mishpacha staff as Rabbi Eytan Kobre the visionary behind the magnificent project assigned everyone different tasks in trying to present an accurate picture of what was as he formed a kaleidoscope of greatness.
As usual when I work on an article about a great man the stories I glean during the day become supper-table conversation at home. Inevitably my children asked me if I ever merited seeing Reb Moshe and Reb Yaakov. They have at various times asked me if I saw the Chofetz Chaim the Rambam or the Avos. I was forced to tell them that I hadn’t (though I once met someone at the Kosel who insisted that he was in fact the Rambam and seemed genuinely convinced of this).
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