כשהרב שך זכרונו, ה’בעל מחלוקת’ הידוע, נפטר מעולמו, הרב חיים גריינימן זצ”ל השתתף בהלויה.
שאלו אותו, והלא הרב שך רדף אתכם חנם, ומדוע זה גומל לו חסד של אמת, ומשלם טובה תחת רעה. הרב גריינימן השיב: נו, הוא היה בהלויה שלי…
הסיפור אמת – מידיעה. הרב גריינימן גם השיב עוד תשובות לאותה שאלה לאחרים ששאלו.
There is an upcoming post on this, summarizing Rabbi Yitzchak Brand’s views.
(See also our compilation on this topic.)
הרב נחמן מברסלב (חיי מוהר”ן סי’ תקל”ז):
A Prince is despised when he is seen to be fickle, frivolous, effeminate, pusillanimous, or irresolute, against which defects he ought therefore most carefully to guard, striving so to bear himself that greatness, courage, wisdom, and strength may appear in all his actions.
In short, for one man to hold power over another, he must pretend to be superhuman. This is why politicians pretend to never get ill or lack knowledge of any current affairs (aside from the Misesian economic information problem). They prop (read: drug) themselves up and answer questions with “our position is unchanged” (as did Tony Blair). This is why the ancient emperors and Pharaohs made themselves false deities.
But the old rule holds true: You can fool some of the people all the time or all the people some of the time, but not all the people all of the time. So you really need to be omnipotent to keep power, that is, God.
Good News; He really is in power!