Gedeilim experience

This Shabbos I had a pleasure to read a book about a great Jewish luminary.

Let me start over.

I was staying with a very nice Lubavitch family, and in their basement found a book about one of Israeli “gedeilim”, which I was scanning through while waiting to depart for mincha. Then I read some more. Then, before going to sleep, some more.

Suddenly I realized why Circus Tent publishes all these misnagdim-bashing posts and makes fun of “gedeilim” biographies.

You know how the Rebbe sometimes analyzes a sugya in Gemara or Rashi or Chassidus and shows how there is a problem in the traditional understanding of the concept? He takes it apart — and for a few seconds, you realize that indeed, this makes no sense — until the Rebbe goes down a few spiral twists and uncovers the hidden depth in the sugya. And suddenly, everything is illuminated. It’s a bit of a yerida l’tzorech aliyah experience. Descent for the sake of ascent.

Well, this book was full of experiences of yerida without an aliyah. I would read a story about this rabbi or some contemporary of his and wait for a punchline... and it wouldn’t come.

Just an example. The book relates how the rabbi was at some sort of simcha with a bunch of other gedeilim. Suddenly, the Lebanese (Turks? Syrians?) started shelling the city. People ran into the building from the street searching for cover, tables with drinks and food were turned over, lights went out, everyone was lying on the floor, screaming. One of the people asked the main character of the book: “Rabbi, what should we do?” The rabbi answered: “Say vidui.”

That’s it.

Umm. OK. If the book wasn’t so thoroughly dry until that point (it mostly lists how many pages of Gemara per week the rabbi would manage to learn at different points of his life), I would suspect this to be an attempt at deadpanning humor.

The book continues. Later, people asked this rabbi: “And what was R’ Aaron Kotler doing at this moment?” He smiled and replied: “What was the leader of our generation doing? He was pleading for his life. He was crying: ‘Please, Hashem, I don’t want to go yet. I still have so much of your Torah to learn.’”

Hmm. Alrighty then...

Perhaps I lack the required eidelkeit.