Chapter Sixty-Three:

Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag's "Introduction to the Zohar"

-- as translated and commented on by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

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63.

"In fact, our sages already raised this question themselves when they said the following."

"Rav Papa said to Abaya, ‘How were the earlier (sages) different (i.e., better, than we, so) that miracles befell them ... (while) miracles don’t befall us? Is it because of the (quality of our respective) studies? But, during the years of Rabbi Yehudah (i.e., among the earlier sages) Talmudic study consisted of Nezikin (alone, i.e., only one of the six orders of the Talmud) while we study the entire Talmud (so it can’t be that). And (why is it that) when Rabbi Yehudah was studying Tractate Okatzin he said (immediately about a certain case)..., I sense here the gist of (the arguments of) Rav and Shmuel, while we study Okatzin in thirteen yeshivot (and don’t merit that)? And (why is it that) as soon as Rabbi Yehudah would remove a single shoe (to begin his preparations for a fast to alleviate a drought) that rains came down, while we torment ourselves and cry out (for rain) and no one (in Heaven) notices?’ Abaya replied, ‘(It’s because) the earlier (sages) were willing to sacrifice their lives to sanctify G-d’s name'” (Berachot 20A).

"While it was clear to both the one who raised the question (Rav Papa) and the one who answered it (Abaya) that the earlier (sages) were greater than they both from a Torah and a wisdom perspective, (it was also clear) that Rav Papa and Abaya were (nonetheless) greater than the earlier (sages)."
-- On the one hand the earlier sages were less meritorious than those in Rav Papa and Abaya’s generation in fact because they studied less Torah than they, fewer people studied it in their time, and because their hearts didn’t break when they saw others suffering; yet on the other hand the earlier sages seemed more meritorious than they, since they were worthy of quick insight and solutions to their problems, and they were willing to sacrifice their lives to sanctify G-d’s name.

"Hence it’s clear that though the earlier (sages) were greater (in fact) than the latter (ones), as a consequence of the axiom that the more subtle is fashioned and brought into the world first, still-and-all more of the Torah’s wisdom is revealed in the latter generation. That’s because, as we said, an entity’s makeup is (only) brought to fruition by latter factors, and hence they (the latter ones) enjoy fuller lights (i.e., greater revelations, than the former) even though the latter are of a lesser quality (than they)."

c) 2006 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman

(Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org )

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