12:21 PM
Gil Student
(Follow-up from this post)
Steve Brizel kindly pointed me to this editorial from the English Israeli Yated Ne'eman, that describes its attitude towards biography:
We do not of course compare a baseball life to a Torah life, but the analogy to the interest that one has is obvious. If one is deeply interested in Torah lives and in how others lived their lives of Torah and avodas Hashem, he or she will be eager to hear about nuances that a casual observer would not notice. What an outside critic sees as a numbing sameness, is seen by those seeking to improve themselves from the example of great people as valuable and fascinating new information.
That at least is the theory. The quality of the work varies as it does in any area. At Yated we set our standards high and we believe that we generally meet or beat them. In any case mediocrity is deplorable, but it is by no means unique to the field of biographies of Torah giants.
A related complaint that is sometimes made is that we leave out information. This is true, but the reason is that in our Torah-based scale of values, the harm or embarrassment that can be caused to someone — perhaps a family member or bystander — rates much higher than the needs of the historical record or journalistic objectivity. The actual or potential tears of a widow or an orphan weigh very heavily, and we unhesitatingly withhold any information or anecdote that may cause such pain. Even after we take this out, there is always plenty of material for our readers.
So we will continue writing biographies as we have been, until the days in which ubila hamovess lonetzach, death becomes obsolete.
