Think You Were Born in the Wrong Generation? The Torah Says Otherwise

In Parashat Shoftim, the following verses appear:

“If a matter of judgment is too difficult for you, between blood and blood, between law and law, or between affliction and affliction, matters of dispute in your gates, you shall arise and go up to the place that Hashem, your God, will choose. "

"You shall come to the Levitical priests and to the judge who will be in those days, and you shall inquire, and they will tell you the ruling of judgment. You shall act according to the word they tell you from that place that Hashem will choose, and you shall be careful to do according to all that they instruct you. According to the Torah they instruct you and according to the judgment they tell you, you shall act; you shall not turn away from the word they tell you, right or left.”

These verses establish the importance and authority of the Great Court:

“These verses address the importance of the Great Court, which sits at the central place of the sanctuary of the Torah, and grant this court its sole and supreme authority. It was entrusted with the received tradition and the authorized interpretation of the Torah, and every enactment intended to uphold the Torah according to halacha was placed under its final authority. Therefore, the people as a whole, as well as the Torah scholars among them, are obligated to accept its view for practical halacha” (Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch).

This court is called the Sanhedrin.

The Sanhedrin serves with its full authority only when it is on the grounds of the Temple, in its chamber beside the altar. Only as long as it sits there is there permission to adjudicate capital cases (see Avodah Zarah 8b).

Why Does the Torah Say “In Those Days”?

These verses contain words that seem, at first glance, unnecessary: “You shall come to the Levitical priests and to the judge who will be in those days.”

The addition “who will be in those days” seems superfluous. After all, it is obvious that people would go to the priests and judges of their own time. Is it possible to go to a priest or judge who has already died?

Rashi addresses this question and cites the Sifrei Midrash: “And to the judge who will be in those days, even if he is not like the other judges who came before him, you must listen to him. You have only the judge of your own days.”

In every generation, we must accept the authority of the leading figures of that generation who are worthy of teaching Torah through their wisdom and reverence for Hashem. We must heed their voice even if they fall short of the great figures of the past in spiritual and moral stature.

The Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 25b) puts it a little differently: “Would it ever occur to you that a person would go to a judge who was not alive in his own time? Rather, you have only the judge of your own days.”

It then cites the verse: “Do not say, ‘How was it that the earlier days were better than these?’ For it is not out of wisdom that you ask this” (Ecclesiastes 7:10).

Let’s look at this more closely.

You Have the Leaders of Your Generation

Some people dismiss today’s spiritual leadership, saying: There used to be rabbis. There used to be great halachic authorities. Today, we are an orphaned generation, and we have nothing. There is no one to listen to and no one from whom to learn.

Then the verse comes and tells us: “Do not say, ‘How was it that the earlier days were better than these?’ For it is not out of wisdom that you ask this” (Ecclesiastes 7:10).

The Midrash (Midrash Rabbah, Ecclesiastes 1:4) writes:

“Rabbi Abba bar Kahana, and some say it in the name of Rabbi Ada bar Huna, said: It is written, ‘A generation goes and a generation comes’ (Ecclesiastes 1:4). A generation that comes should always be as significant in your eyes as the generation that went. Do not say: If Rabbi Akiva were alive, I would study Scripture before him. If Rabbi Zeira were alive, I would study Mishnah before him. And so it says: ‘Do not say, “How was it that the earlier days were better than these?”’ You have only the judge of your generation.”

“He made everything beautiful in its time” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

Every person is born at the most precise time for them, and every generation has its righteous people. It is true that there is a concept called the decline of the generations, but still: “Do not say, ‘How was it that the earlier days were better than these?’ For it is not out of wisdom that you ask this.”

Stop Wishing You Had Lived in Another Generation

More broadly, there is a phenomenon in which people live too much in the past and use the concept of the “decline of the generations” as an excuse for their own spiritual weakness.

They say: There is nothing we can do. We are a weak generation. If I had been born in an earlier era, I would have been better. If I had been surrounded by the righteous people of the past, I would have followed in their ways.

This is the counsel of the evil inclination.

The Torah teaches us not to romanticize another generation at the expense of our own spiritual growth. We were born into this generation, with its challenges and its Torah leaders. Anyone who thinks, “If only I had lived then, I would have been different,” is not asking out of wisdom.