Virtually the entire chareidi world is now learning, for the
first time ever, what it is like to live in a world without
Maran HaRav Shach, zt"l. For over ninety years he was
part of the yeshiva world, and for most of them he was at or
near its summit.
And what a height he scaled! He was truly one who lived, even
in our day, on the Har Hashem. He was one who could
stand in His holy place.
As HaRav Shach said in his hesped of the Brisker Rov,
"No matter what words of eulogy or appreciation we use, they
will only serve to detract from the stature of the
niftar, for we are not capable of grasping what he
really was."
HaRav Shach's suggestion then was just to "talk about the
event." Everyone, he said, can contribute something to such a
discussion. We can only tell of what we have seen in our
small corner of the world.
As is well-known, HaRav Shach started Yated Ne'eman
together with the Steipler, and the English edition of
Yated Ne'eman on his own. He felt very strongly that
both are important for our times.
It is critical that there be a way to disseminate the
da'as Torah of maranan verabonon the leaders of
our generation. The only way to ensure that, as extensive
experience has shown, is to have a newspaper in which the
actual board of directors is made up of rabbonim. The
rabbonim are in control, and they can write or not write
whatever they want, because they have the actual power of the
company that is Yated Ne'eman. The only publications
in the world of which this can be said are the two editions
(Hebrew and English) of Yated Ne'eman that are
published in Eretz Yisroel.
There are many other publications whose staff is chareidi and
basically share the same goals. However, these are all run
basically for a profit, and that can and does affect what is
said in them and what is left out of them.
This what Maran HaRav Shach accomplished when he set up
Yated Ne'eman: that the full material control of the
newspaper is in the hands of rabbonim, the Vaada Ruchanit.
This ensures that pure daas Torah is broadcast,
uncolored by any extraneous interests such as profit and loss
or circulation numbers or any personal feelings of the
staff.
Many described the founding of Yated Ne'eman as a
political move calculated to advance his interests. But it
should be abundantly clear from all the material about him
and certainly to anyone who ever had contact with him that
his only interest was promoting the benefit of Malchus
Shomayim and of Klal Yisroel.
After so long, and after so much accomplished, his great work
is finally finished and it is left to us to try to live up to
his legacy. We should take with us the closing words of his
will: Haporeish mikem be'ahavoh -- who parts from you
with love.
