Perhaps the ultimate example is Rabbi Yehuda Hazani, who fell from a cliff in the Judean Desert twenty years ago, was the greatest of the leaders of Gush Emunim: humble, scholarly, and invisible to the general public. The masses of people who participated in the movements to new settlement sites and the huge marches in Judea and Samaria that Hazani initiated or coordinated had no idea of who was pulling the strings.
In these days of candidates, spinsters, and strategists, it’s comforting to know that there are people following in the anonymous but great footsteps of Yehuda Hazani. People of action, known only to those who must know, swimming against the current of self-interest.
A version of this article was originally published in Makor Rishon (Hebrew), August 2012, translated from Hebrew by David B. Greenberg.