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<a style="color:#999 ! important;font-size:22px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-weight:normal;" href="http://www.aishdas.org/asp">Aspaqlaria</a>
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<a style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;margin-bottom:3px;" href="http://www.aishdas.org/asp/2007/02/midgets-on-the-shoulders-of-giants.shtml">Midgets on the Shoulders of Giants</a>
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<span>Posted:</span> 06 Feb 2007 09:24 PM CST</h3>
<div class="itemcontent"><p>Someone recently asked me about nisqatnu hadoros, the decline over time from one generation to the next. How is this possible, given that we now have universal education, and the masses know more Torah than any other generation in millenia?<br />
I like the metaphor of the rules of grammar that Moshe Koppel uses in his seifer “Metahalakha”. A native speaker of a language may not know its rules, whereas an immigrant who went to enough ulpan or ESL classes would know how to conjugate past pluperfect irregular verbs. The native speaker, though, knows what “sounds right”. And thus, with his less knowledge, is capable of knowing acceptable poetic license to make his point more elloquently and poignantly. The immigrant will make precisely grammatically correct sentences. If he learns two grammarians opinions, and he is sufficiently scared of sounding like an idiot, he will often choose a sentence that conforms to both interpretations. The immigrant, because he lacks that feel for the subject, will play safe.</p>
<p>Here’s R JB Soloveitchik’s way of describing the decline, as written in Pinchas Peli’s notes of his pre-Rosh haShanah lectures (”Soloveitchik On Repentance”, pp 88-89):</p>
<blockquote><p>Allow me, please, to make a “private confession” concerning a matter that has caused me such loss of sleep. I am not so very old, yet I remember a time when ninety percent of world Jewry were observant and the secularists were a small minority at the fringes of the camp. I still remember - it was not so long ago - when Jews were still close to G-d and lived in an atmosphere perverted with holiness. But, today, what do we see? The profane and the secular are in control wherever we turn.</p>
<p>Even in those neighborhoods made up predominantly of religious Jews one can no longer talk of the “sanctity of the Sabbath day.” True, there are Jews in America who observe the Sabbath. The label “Sabbath observer” has come to be used as a title of honor in our circles, just like “Harav HaGaon” - neither really indicates anything and both testify to the lowly state of our generation. But it is not for the Sabbath that my heart aches, it is for the “eve of the Sabbath.” There are Sabbath-observing Jews in America, but there are not “eve-of-the-Sabbath” Jews who go out to greet the Sabbath with beating hearts and pulsating souls. There are many who observe the precepts with their hands, with their feet and/or with their mouths - but there are few, indeed, who truly know the meaning of service of the heart! What is the percentage of religious Jews today in contrast to the ninety percent only two generations ago? It seems to me that religious Jewry survives today solely by force of the Name of G-d who is there after man sins.</p>
<p>Otherwise we should have utterly despaired and given in to the feeling, with which I am often overcome as I lie awake at night, that we are building castles of sand, and any moment a wave will come and wipe out everything. But G-d who is there after man sins does not allow us to despair. He whispers in our ears the “Jerusalem is surrounded by mountains” - one must do much climbing and work hard, grasp every hand-hold and out-cropping, slide backward and try again to climb the mountain so as to be able to reach Jerusalem. “Who shall climb the mountain unto the Lord?” I do not believe that it is easy to return and repent. The path of repentance, for the individual, as well as the community, is arduous and many boulders are strewn about which can be overcome only with supreme effort. The road is long and tortuous until one arrives at the stage of: “Be cleansed before the Lord,” the cleansing of the Name of G-d who is there before man sins.</p></blockquote>
<p>This is the notion of midgets standing on the shoulders of giants. Now that we have universal education, we know more more. We are “higher”. However, in terms of religious passion we are midgets and add far less to the total height. It is this poverty that is seen as now reaching crisis levels.</p>
<p>This same question was asked in the gemara.</p>
<blockquote><p>R. Papa said to [his teacher] Abayei: What is the difference between those earlier [than us], for whom miracles were common, and us, for whom miracles are not common? If it is because of <em>tenuyei</em>…</p></blockquote>
<p>I want to break off here for a second. <em>Tenuyei</em> is from <span style="font-style: italic">tani</span>, to repeat, the root means “two”. It is also the root for <em>masnisin</em>, Mishna. Clearly the word means information memorized and repeated, the chain of <span style="font-style: italic">masorah</span>, in distinction to ideas that are derived or reasoned from those facts we inherited.</p>
<blockquote><p>…in the years of R. Yehuda, all of tenuyei was in Neziqin, and we are <span style="font-style: italic">masnisin…</span></p></blockquote>
<p>which either means “learn <span style="font-style: italic">mishnayos</span>” or “repeat what we learned”. The difference wasn’t all that significant in those days. <span style="font-style: italic">Mishnayo</span>s existed as an easily memorizable form for <span style="font-style: italic">halakhah</span>.</p>
<blockquote><p>…6 orders. And when R. Yehuda delineates in Uqtzin, [the case of] “A woman who dries vegetables in a pot”, or, some say [the case of] “Olives that were dried cut off”, [his students] Rav and Shmuel’s entire existances [were tied up in the resolution] of this issue. Yet we are masnisin Uqtzin in 13 schools [of thought, with 13 different explanations - Rashi]….<br />
[Abayei] said to him: The are <span style="font-style: italic">mosir nefesh</span> [commit their souls] to sanctify The Name, we are not mosir nefesh to sanctify The Name.</p></blockquote>
<p align="right">- Brachos 20a</p>
<p>The gemara very clearly states that it is possible for one generation to know more than an earlier one. Abayei’s conclusion is that the lessoning of the generations is in Mersiras nefesh - commitment, not in knowledge.</p>
<p>If this was all there was to it.</p>
<p>One of the basic differences between Orthodox and Conservative thought is the mutability of decisions made by earlier generations. Orthodoxy breaks history down into eras: <span style="font-style: italic">tana’im</span>, <span style="font-style: italic">amora’im</span>, <span style="font-style: italic">rishonim</span> and<span style="font-style: italic"> achronim</span> (roughly: mishnaic, talmudic, medieval, and late authorities). A rabbi of a later era may not or would not dispute one of an earlier era without having another earlier Rabbi in support. The dictum used to support this system is that no court can overrule another court unless it is greater in <span style="font-style: italic">chokhmah</span> (to be translated later) and in number. Since we can get arbitrarily large courts today, we seem to assume that later generations have less <span style="font-style: italic">chokhmah </span>than earlier ones.</p>
<p><span style="font-style: italic">Chokhmah</span>, therefore, is some mental process, but if we want our quote from the gemara to stand, it is not required for masnisin. So <span style="font-style: italic">chokhmah</span> doesn’t refer to collecting information.</p>
<p>There is a famous quote, from Mes. Tamid: “Who is a <span style="font-style: italic">chokham</span>? One who sees what will be born.” Chokhmah here is a mental skill. But are we saying it is a necesary skill to be able to trace cause to effects (think before you do?); or even, <span style="font-style: italic">chokhmah</span> is acquired by studying causes to get effects. This seemingly straightforward quote didn’t help as much as I’d guess it would.</p>
<p>What is <span style="font-style: italic">chokhmah</span>? Well, I went to my copy of the Tanya, the book describing a Judaism based on <span style="font-style: italic">Chokhmah Bina vaDa’as</span> — Chabad. I figured that R. Shneur Zalman of Liadi must define his terms somewhere. Sure enough, this is what I found in Chapter 3. (Disclaimer: I am not a student of Chabad, my knowledge is very superficial. This is just a quote from an authorized translation by R. Nissan Mindel (1962).)</p>
<blockquote><p>The intellect of the rational soul, which is the faculty which conceives of any thing, is given the appellation of <span style="font-style: italic">chokhmah</span> — <span style="font-style: italic">koach mah </span>– the “potentiality” of “what is”. When one brings forth this power from the potential to the actual, that is when [a person] cogitates with his intellect in order to understand a thing truly and profoundly as it evolves from the concept which he has conceived in his intellect, this is called binah.</p></blockquote>
<p><span style="font-style: italic">Chokhmah</span>, then, is the ability to conceive, to imagine, to create new information, which is then developed by <span style="font-style: italic">binah</span>. Neither refer to just warehousing information spoon-fed by the outside world — the ability most related to the <span style="font-style: italic">masnisin</span> of M. Brachos. <span style="font-style: italic">Chokhmah</span> would be the ability to perform thought-experiments. This helps understand our quote from Tamid. A <span style="font-style: italic">chokham</span> is the one who is ABLE to envision consequences before acting.</p>
<p>(But what about the oft-quoted <span style="font-style: italic">mishnah</span> of Ben Zoma (Avos 4:1) “Who is a chokham? One who learns from all men…”? I don’t see how this works with the either gemara that we quoted, or the Tanya’s definition. I considered the same three alternatives as I did for the mishna in Tamid: 1- A <span style="font-style: italic">chokham</span> is one who is able to learn from any person. This seems to be a statement about <span style="font-style: italic">middos</span> (personality traits) not intellect. 2- A <span style="font-style: italic">chokham</span> would know that you ought to learn from anyone. This could be, but so would a navon (one blessed with binah, deductive abilities). 3- <span style="font-style: italic">Chokhmah</span> is acquired by learning from any person. This is, again, about <span style="font-style: italic">masnisin</span> — remembering and being able to repeat what you learned.</p>
<p>(Perhaps, and I admit this is a lame reply, <span style="font-style: italic">chokham</span> is used in Avos in a broad non-technical sense. A <span style="font-style: italic">chokham</span> could be one who has <span style="font-style: italic">chokhmah</span>, or one who has any intellectual prowess.)</p>
<p>We can tie these two types of generational descent together by positing a single cause. Clearly, for <span style="font-style: italic">mesiras nefesh</span> — commiting oneself to G-d, one requires <em>Yir’as Hashem</em> — awe of G-d. Similarly, we say upon waking up every morning: <em>reishis chokhmah yir’as Hashem</em> — the begining or source of Chokhmah is awe of G-d.</p>
<p>It seems to me from these two phenomena that it is <span style="font-style: italic">yir’as Shamayim</span> that is the primary trait that is diminishing through the years. The gemara in Brachos about <span style="font-style: italic">mesiras nefesh</span>, and the increasing crystallization of halachic decision are the outward manifestations.</p>
<p><span style="font-style: italic">Yir’as Shamayim</span>, an awareness of the magnitude and import of the One in Heaven and our relationship to Him is the essence of the Sinai experience. Someone who can feel it and live by it is truly a “native speaker” of <span style="font-style: italic">halakhah</span>. We who do not spend erev Shabbos in anticipation of Shabbos must rely on strict adherence to formalized rules.
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