Even very great leaders have had downfalls because they were not conscious of their own blind spots. But only very occasionally is a leader's blind spot the result of his spiritual purity rather than his frailty.
Impaired vision
How is it possible that a giant of Yitzchak's stature with all his wisdom, ruach hakodesh and insight, was hoodwinked by his son Eisav and daughter-in-law, Yehudis? And if he was not hoodwinked by their idol worshipping (Rashi 26:35 and Midrash Rabba 65:4), why did he not intervene to stop it? The Torah's suggested answer (27:1) raises more questions than it resolves: "And it was because Yitzchak had become old that his eyes weakened from being able to see." Clearly this blindness does not refer only to his physical vision but also to his insight (see Ba'al Haturim and Seforno).
The Seforno remarks how strange it is that the Torah attributes Yitzchak's fading vision to his old age, because neither Avraham nor Ya'acov seemed to suffer from this malady at even older ages than Yitzchak's at this point. The word Ki in the verse therefore cannot mean because but must mean when: It was when Yitzchak had become old that his eyes weakened…" The cause of his deteriorating vision was not his age, age was just the timing; something else was its cause.
When Yitzchak was about to be sacrificed, the angels wept and their tears fell into his eyes and blinded him (Rashi and Midrash Rabba 65:10). This is a beautiful metaphor, but what does it mean, especially if we take his blindness to refer not only to his sight but also to his insight? The Midrash continues with another explanation that adds depth to the first. It attributes Yitzchak's blindness to his having had sight of theshechina while he was about to be sacrificed. The Targum Yerushalmi (27:1) adopts this second explanation, which makes perfect sense considering the Gemarra inChagiga 16a that if one looks at a rainbow, a Nasi or the Kohannim when they used toduchen in the Beis Hamikdash using the sheim hamephorash (G-d's unique andsecret name), ones eyes weakened. This is because each of these three objects in some way radiates aspects of the shechina; how much more so if one were to see theshechina itself. However, we still need to go a level deeper in understanding why seeing the Highest of High should have caused the great Yitzchak to become blind to things that were so obvious to ordinary people. Surely the opposite should be the case: Wouldn't seeing the shechinah sharpen ones insight beyond that of the ordinary person?
The causes of blind spots
It is common for people to have blind spots. Even very great leaders have had downfalls because they were not conscious of their own blind spots. Think of how the original Swiss watch industry was blind to the emergence of quartz technology or the leadership of Polaroid failed to notice the emergence of digital photography. Sometimes a blind spot is caused by complacency, sometimes by arrogance, and sometimes by negios - personal bias. There can, however, be another cause for a blind spot: Spiritual purity.
When we see people act in ways that are entirely outside of our own spectrum of experience we often have no explanation for what motivates them. This is even more pronounced when the person whose behavior we are trying to understand is very close to us. When this happens we tend to deny reality and our denial blinds us. You often hear of parents who deny that their child is on drugs or is abusing alcohol when the symptoms are abundantly clear to everyone else. If the drug addiction was in the realm of the parent's personal experience or if the addict was not so close to them, they would recognize the symptoms immediately. When Yitzchak saw the shechina he saw more than a vision of G-d. He had a crystal clear grasp of reality and truth, free from any distortion. Having seen reality with that level of clarity, it made no sense to Yitzchak that anyone would serve idols, murder and rob people, especially not his own son; there had to be another explanation. It was Yitchak's very greatness that made it impossible for him to relate to the realities of his son, Eisav's life.
Rav vs. Rosh Yeshiva
The blindness that emanates from greatness applies not only to understanding wickedness. Sometimes it makes it hard for great leaders to relate to people from a different cultural or generational environment. When Reb Shimon Shkopp z"l visited the United States before the War he could not understand how it was possible for Yeshiva students to play basketball during their recesses. Reb Ahron Kotler z"l could not fathom why benei Torah would feel the need for a secular education. To Roshei Yeshivas of the great pre-war tradition, these activities were totally outside their realm of experience and were incomprehensible to them. On the other hand Gedolim like Rav J.B. Soleveitchik z"l (no less of a talmid chochom) understood these behaviors because, having attended university himself in Berlin, they were not outside his own spectrum of experience.
This idea explains the different competencies of a Rav and a Rosh Yeshiva. A Ravpaskens day-to-day sheilos and guides people from all walks of life through their existential, religious and moral dilemmas. A Rosh Yeshiva is fortunate to live and operate in the spiritually rarefied atmosphere of a Yeshiva where he works with perfect Torah ideals rather than with flawed practical realities. Very occasionally a single individual combines both of these halachik persona into one integrated being. Reb Moshe Feinstein z"l, for example, the greatest poseik of the post-war Western World, was both Rosh Yeshiva and Rav. His daily contact with sometimes mundane sheilosbrought the reality of ordinary people's lives into his spectrum of experience. He could adapt perfect halachik reasoning to the imperfect situations he was confronted with in New York and from around the Western World. My own Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Eliyahu Mishkovsky z"l was also both Rosh Yeshiva and Rav of the town, Kefar Hassidim.
Partners in Torah Leadership
Mostly, the two halachik persona of Rosh Yeshiva and Rav are found in different people who often function in somewhat different worlds. We need both halachikdimensions in our leadership. There are times when we need the Avrahamicdimension of leadership, the Rav, and times when we need the Yitzchak dimension, the Rosh Yeshiva. We need leaders whose unadulterated purity makes it hard for them to relate to practical reality or to make any accommodation for it at all. These leaders set the gold standard of Torah ideals for us. But we also need the Avraham and Ya'acov dimension of halachik leadership, great individuals who engage with ordinary and at times even wicked people and understand their psyches. Each dimension has its own greatness: Yitzchak saw the shechinah in all its crystal clarity. Avraham and Ya'acov never experienced the degree of clarity of truth that Yitzchak had from seeing the Shechina Itself.
We need leaders who fiercely protect the sanctity and uncompromising truth of Torah ideals. And we also need those who can apply Torah ideals to the non-ideal situations that characterize most of life. Most of all we need these two archetypes of Torah leadership to admire each other's contribution and to collaborate in leading the Jewish people. When Rosh Yeshiva operates without Rav we spiral into dogmatic fundamentalism and naïve separateness. When Rav functions without Rosh Yeshiva we get dilution, over-accommodation and appeasement. Neither of these extremes manifests the inspirational midah of emes (characteristic of truthful balance - notice the broad bases of each of the letters of emes: aelph, mem and toff, and that these letters comprise the entire alphabetic spectrum from aleph to toff, indicating breadth and balance) represented by Ya'acov. Ya'acov was the synthesis of Avraham's engaged in-touchedness and Yitzchak's uncompromising, yet somewhat detached, purity. The Emes of Ya'acov is Hashem's own Hallmark and the foundation of our Torah, Toras Emes.
