My brother Dovid and his Relationship With Gedolim

 A statement I heard from Rav Diskind, the son in law of Rav Yakov, summarizes my brother very well. He said: ”Our Sages have said that Yiftach in his generation is as Shmuel was in his generation. But woe is it to the person who knew Shmuel.” He obviously wasn’t saying that Yiftach in his time as the head of the Sanhedrin was not to be disrespected since he clearly was not as great as Shmuel. Nor was he saying Yiftach was not as authoritative as Shmuel because he was not as great a Talmid chachom as we see that he sacrificed his daughter. He was saying a more personal point. While we need to respect the contemporary leaders there is no mitzva to be stupid and ignore their short comings. Rav Moshe writes in the Igros Moshe that there are no gedolim today, including himself,  that you can’t disagree with what they say.  My brother Dovid had the opportunity to get to know the views of the previous generation personally and therefore could not accept blindly the deviations of their successors and in fact protested against the deviations. The family found a large collection of letters he received from Rav Moshe Feinstein written in response to his many questions. My brother knew what the previous gedolim thought and why on a wide range of topics. The haskomas he received clear attest that he understood the views of the gedolim of previous generations.  He had heard their responses directly orally or in correspondence. My brother was thus clearly someone who had known Shmuel.