In a week and a half's time, Jewry will acknowledge the first yahrtzeit of Maran HaRav Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman ztvk'l.
A year without the commander or captain who stood at the helm and toiled so that Torah not be forgotten amidst Jewry. A year without a faithful shepherd who was more beneficial than rainfall, more than sunshine, more than father and mother, who bore the burden of the people as a whole and of each and every one upon his frail shoulders.
The gap is great; the pain not assuaged. We are like orphans without a father.
But the generation is not orphaned. Fortunate are we for being blessed with great rabbonim to lead the flock, headed by Sar HaTorah (HaRav Chaim Kanievsky) and Maran the Rosh Yeshiva (HaRav Gershon Edelstein) who have guided us through their wisdom and Torah stature for this past generation. "May You increase the days of the king, and his years for generation after generation." No, this generation is not orphaned.
We are small folk and our vision is myopic, too limited to encompass the fact. In our smallness, we only view things with narrow, localized reckoning. We are too limited to regard things with the perspective of Torah through daas Torah on any issue or matter. We are dependent upon our rabbonim, the luminaries of the generation, who are empowered through their Torah greatness and are capable of encompassing every subject through a Torah perspective and from the Torah itself, since the entire Torah is spread out before them as a result of their infinite toil and labor throughout their lives. Thus has it been since generations immemorial. And so will it continue in ours with our own Torah leaders.
A decision and a direction of the Sar HaTorah emanates from the Torah in its entirety which is laid out before him very unmistakably and tangibly. Whoever has been in his proximity to ask any question, received its answer decisively with guidance and was convinced that any decision and directive was built on the teachings of Chazal and explicit sources, rather than references from here and there, and was based on amazing expertise of the entire Torah.
A decision and directive from the Rosh Yeshiva encompassed very penetratingly all the sides of the issue in question from a Torah viewpoint based on all the sugyos of Shas and halachic decisions, through comparison or incisive analysis with a finely pointed awl, just as was done before the eyes of myriad students throughout the decades of his Torah dissemination in every facet of the Torah.
