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The Ariza”l says, that one mitzvah in his day far outweighed a mitzva of a tanna or an amorrah. Since in the generations gone by, the air was much more pure and not polluted with tumah, and they would live an almost eutopian lifestyle, without nisyonos of the street like that of our times, so proportion to that, their mitzvos had a certain value, but it was expected. But living in a society where it is difficult to be shomer torah u’mitzvos, because the koichos hatumah disrupts and distracts us from doing the rotzon Hashem, the value of a mitzvah is much greater.
That’s what the Ariza”l said in HIS day. Nowadays, our mitzvos’ worth are astronomically priceless! If the worth of a mitzva is valued according to the amount of energy one exerts against the yeitzer hara and the tumah of the world, so we can seriously be considered THE LUCKIEST GENERATION EVER, having the opportunity to fulfill mitzvos worth trillion and trillions of priceless value that would have taken a Tannah or an Amorrah literally weeks & weeks and months & months to reach!
But it is SO much harder these days….
iced
True but it can be done and there are many people who fight back and do whats right. I dont mean to brag but I used to be stuck in the nisyonos hador (non Jewish music, movies…) and I stopped them all (gradually) and shifted towards a life of Limud HaTorah and strict adherence to mitzvos. Anyone can change and improve if they want to.
the air was much more pure and not polluted with tumah
Nowadays we have WiFi. The very air is permeated with tumah!!
I heard of this idea from Reb Akiva Eiger, never from the Arizal. But I must say, don’t think the street or the common man was so holy in those, or in any, days.
One thing is more in our generation: we are, or we feel, a part of the world outside us. There have been good times, but now we are completely a part of it, especially in New York, where we are just one minority among many others.
There is also a very big Nesayon of Kfira, general and pointed. But this is not the first time and probably not the worst.
Nowadays we have WiFi. The very air is permeated with tumah!!
I guess learning Daf Yomi Online , Via Skype or VoIP is also Tumah
The past was hardly better. Obviously the physical aspects were horrible (no antibiotics, most children died before reaching adulthood, childbirth was frequently fatal). Genocide is now considered a crime (200 years ago it was considered “normal” policy, and frequently used in by the Europeans, among others). You might complain about morals, but until recently one could buy a female slave (use your imagination for the rest, this is a frum website). Standards of living were so low that for many Jews the price of being frum we to live near starvations (people would go off the derekh to get fed, today they go off the derekh to be comfortably middle class). The concept of “Freedom of religion” is accepted in much of the world – 300 years ago it was considered to be a form perversion.
Thus we are an unfortunate generation. Our accomplishments will be judged by what we could accomplish given the ideal conditions we live under. To we have anything that compares favorably with the rishonim and the achronim?
Well said, akuperma.
akuperma
Nobody says they didnt have challenges, but we have much stronger spiritual challenges. I have heard that Rav Mattisyahu Salamon Shlita thanks Hashem every day that he wasnt born to be a teenager in this generation. The nisyonos today are very powerful and all over the place and unfortunately many people are not coping well.
Each and every person is born into the generation, time, family, friends, etc. that is best to achieve their life goals. As the mashgiachs love to say “each person has is own keilim and should stick to those and no one else’s”. Meaning we have what HKBH gave us and nothing else. We have our nisyanos, our gashmiyus and we have our tools to fight it the best way possible.
Thank you BaalHabooze for that perspective of boundless possibilities…it is inspiring to think about all of the many wonderful mitzvos we can do, given the many advantages we have. It makes such a difference when I try to face the day with optimism!
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