Great Rabbis Series - Rabbi Eliezer Shach

In the days when I was Modern Orthodox, I suddenly came across the Lithuanian Ultra-Orthodox leader, Rabbi Shach.  Shach was strongly opposed to all of the Orthodoxy I was familiar with, Modern Orthodoxy, Zionist Orthodoxy, Chabad, etc.  Prior to my discovering the corruptness of Chabad, this all came as a shock, and I disregarded R' Shach.  I am still not a follower of his, but I wish to point out some interesting things he said. 

Firstly, he helped stem the tide of the Messianic movement of Chabad, at great personal cost, as the Lubavitcher Rebbe up to that point was universally respected in orthodoxy.

Second, he also opposed Steinsaltz, who again, I only realised later was misrepresenting Judaism, as per my previous post. However, he added something which shows tremendous insight. He said that - for his followers - it is forbidden to debate with Steinsaltz.  I now understand, in psychological terms, what Shach was saying.  He was saying that writers like Steinsaltz are intellectually dishonest - but they use their great knowledge to deceive people, and are really pushing a false ideology.  I agree with that statement, and it applies to many other walks of life as well. He also made a very interesting, and maybe embarrassing speech.  In a speech he gave in 1991, he said the following:

"Many decrees were issued against Klal Yisroel. Throughout the time of the second Bayis and thereafter, there were many decrees against Am Yisroel. Despite this, rabosai, they managed to create things that were unprecedented. Their creations were bigger than anything that ever was or will be. I mean the Talmud Bavli and Yerushalmi.
Where and when was such a thing done? When was it all established? When was all this created? In the time of the Second Temple and thereafter. Davka then, when we were in golus, when they oppressed Klal Yisroel and decreed shmad, when they killed people for learning Torah, then they made all that, then they learned Torah. They created the Talmud Bavli, than which there is no greater intellectual creation. There never has been nor will be such an achievement of chochmah."

What he  is actually saying or implying is that the Talmud (including the Mishnah) is an entirely human creation.  It may or may not be the greatest intellectual creation, but it is a creation nonetheless. Had it really been oral law,  then it would not be a creation, anymore than the editors who wrote down his speech are creating the ideas in his speech (assuming they did not falsify and embellish his words).

Now of course, Rav Shach was Ultra- haredi, he rejected even  Rabbis J B Soloveichik and Shlomo Goren. He would not agree with any of my views, or with Karaism. However, he was a "karaite" of Lithuanian orthodoxy, i.e. he considered the Halacha of 100 or 200 years ago  to still be valid in every detail.  He was, however, wrong, and destructive in several areas. He opposed all types of secular learning, and the study for a profession.  Not only did this leave many destitute and unable to raise families, a grave sin which he perpetuated. He was also hypocritical, as his wife had studied medicine and supported him financially when he was learning in Yeshiva.  Thus it is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. He also opposed the Entebbe operation, perhaps on the grounds of risking life to save lives, and preferred negotiating with terrorists.

Rabbi Shach's only son became a Modern Zionist Orthodox professor.  After his passing, the yeshiva that Shach had led was divided in the all too familiar civil war, with a battle over who will succeed him. On one occasion, an explosive device was left on the doorstep of one of the rival Rosh Yeshivas.  Shach's theological skills, and even Israeli political savvy  did not give him clear insight into security matters. He spent the years after the 6 day war arguing "land for peace" , only to do a U-turn when the Oslo accords were signed, forbidding returning any Holy Land to the Arabs. May this act of righteous repentance be an example to his many colleagues who still spend their lives trapped in false notions and self destructive beliefs.