Book excerpt: Throughout the generations, Jews have been inspired and guided by the tales of gedolim, our great masters of piety and wisdom. Simcha Raz's "Tales of the Righteous", newly translated by Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins, brings the lives of these masters to life. Raz's pithy vignettes and awe-inspiring tales show that together with their brilliance in Torah study, these rabbis were also paragons of sensitive, ethical behaviour.