[Avodah] Yeridas Ha'Doros

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

My son-in-law was learning Rav Dessler's "Strive For Truth", and got very interested in the chapter about the Bechirah Point. This led to our discussing the idea that the tzadikim of recent generations are not nearly as great as the tzadikim of long ago, and that the reshaim of recent generations are not as evil as the ancient reshaim either.

Then we started wondering, and looking for examples, and came up empty-handed, and so I'm turning to the chevra for help.

Can anyone offer any stories which illustrate, for example, the ways in which Avraham Avinu or Rav Yehudah Hanasi was a bigger tzaddik than Rav Moshe Feinstein? Can anyone demonstrate how Nimrod or Paro was a bigger rasha than Hitler?

We could not come up with any evidence. For all those people, we are accustomed to speak in superlatives, and it is very difficult to show how one infinity is larger than another infinity. For example, granted that Avraham was willing to enter Nimrod's furnace; but was that a bigger kiddush Hashem than the willingness of the kedoshim who entered Hitler's furnaces?

The best answer we could come up with is that our mitzvos tend to be done out of rote rather than dedication, and our sins tend to be done out of laziness rather than evilness. But -- especially if we're talking about average people -- who's to say that this is more true nowadays than 2000 years ago?

I looked around in archives on this topic, and found it discussed as far back as 1998, in Avodah 1:46, where R' Elie Ginsparg wrote:

> ... the gemara shabbos 112b: "if the early generations are
> angels then we are mere humans, and if they are humans we are
> donkeys...." it would seem that this principle has always
> been known.

I agree that this principle seems to have always been known. But I *don't* know that this principle proves anything at all. It is natural for students to look up to their teachers, and for the teachers to look up to their gedolim. And it is natural for children to look up to their parents, and for the parents to look up to the grandparents. But this is only a snapshot of one particular moment in time. Wait 20-30 years, and this generation will mature, and occupy the shoes of the previous generation, and what makes us think that they won't fill them just as well? Nothing but nostalgia.

We cried when the Chofetz Chaim passed on, "Who will fill his shoes? We are like orphans!" And indeed, for a while we were. But surely Rav Ahron Kotler and the Satmar Rov took the reins and adopted us. We cried again when we lost them, and justifiably so. But haven't Rav SZ Auerbach and Rav YS Elyashiv and many others risen to the challenge?

Back in 1999, in Avodah 2:195, R' Yosef G. Bechhofer wrote:

> To the Yeshiva-ensconced Ben Torah, who knows that R' Moshe
> Feinstein went through "gantz" Shulchan Aruch well over a
> hundred times, while few of us have gone through it once, who
> know that R' Pinchos Hirschprung could recite Shas, Rashi,
> Tosafoss & Rosh by heart, as if reading from the page suspended
> in front of him in midair, while most of us b'koshi have gone
> through Shas once or twice with the Daf Yomi cycle, who have sat
> back awestruck by the keenness of the Chazon Ish's Kuntres Yud
> ches Sha'os and been dazzled by RSZ Auerbach's teshuvos on
> electricity and electronics - ALL IN THE LAST GENERATION! -
> and realize that they regarded their Rabbeim as infinitely
> greater than themeselves, and so on and so forth back through
> the ages - must lead inevitably and conclusively to the
> realization of yeridas ha'doros.

I'm not saying he is wrong. I just don't see any evidence for it, other than the humility and respect that a student properly has for his teachers. And that doesn't tell us anything about the objective facts.

In short: Is yeridas hadoros a subjective opinion or is it objective reality?

Akiva Miller

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