“It was their difficult choices and inner work that made them who they were— not inborn perfection”
The feature about the relationship between gedolim and their spouses was a sweet read. It was clear lots of research went into it. I was a bit bothered, though, by one point.
While obviously it wouldn’t be prudent to highlight the “flaws” of such tremendous gedolim and their rebbetzins, I fear there is a grave disservice done when such Torah leaders are painted in a nothing-less-than-perfect light — no internal battles, no mistakes or even slipups, basically no yetzer hara.
In the famous letter from Rav Yitzchak Hutner to a talmid, he writes that it is the failings of an individual that makes him grow and become great — literally because of the struggle and because of the way they work through it, they develop their gadlus. It’s not because they naturally, easily react properly all the time.
The couples presented were leaders of true greatness who towered head and shoulders above us little people in their Torah and in their middos. But let’s not make them out to be malachim. It was their difficult choices and inner work that made them who they were — not inborn perfection.
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