Q&A: The Earlier Ones Are Like Angels!
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
The Earlier Ones Are Like Angels!
Question
The Talmud in Sabbath 112b says: Rabbi Zeira said in the name of Rava bar Zimona: If the earlier ones were sons of angels, we are sons of men; and if the earlier ones were sons of men, we are like donkeys.
Is this specifically about those earlier ones the Talmud is talking about, or about all the earlier ones before that entire generation?
Answer
Before you ask about us, ask about them. The concept of the decline of the generations is discussed in the third or fourth section of Two Carts.
By the way, not everyone has the holy books you wrote