"The heroes of the Oral Torah are heroes of a special kind.
Their stories are not tales of war and battles, and their chronicles are devoid of impressive events.
These heroes are heroes of the spirit, whose acts of heroism lie in their thoughts and their words.
The palaces and fortresses they established are invisible to the eye.
The Talmudic Sages themselves declared that it is inappropriate to erect mausoleums on the graves of scholars, since their teachings are their monuments."
From Talmudic Images, p. xiii, by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz