Reply To: I'm writing a biography of a Gadol

nishtdayngesheft: Actually, I don’t read them anymore. I haven’t read one in years. Oh, and I don’t look at limudei kodesh as the same as limudei chol. I don’t know anyone that does. Someone started spreading this malicious rumor about YU that they view things as such, and it’s simply untrue.

As for the stories, I never said they’re false. I heard a shiur a few years ago where the Rav said these books do more harm than good. The point of these books should be to inspire. When a kid reads how a gadol knew shas by the age of 13, and he has a hard time getting through one blatt with Rashi, do you think he’ll say, “Hey, I can be a talmud chacham just like R’ Ploni!”? No, he’ll say that since he doesn’t know Shas, there’s no hope for him.

Books like The Making of a Godol were the ones that were better (yes, the Rav said this, although he didn’t say the name – he said “A certain book that detailed the lives of some gedolim and some of the challenges they faced while growing up, written by the son of one of them, which was unfairly banned.”) They show that you can live a normal life, make mistakes, and still become a gadol. R’ Hutner wrote in a famous letter that we should learn from the mistakes that Rabbonim made, and see how they picked themselves up.