Why the Exodus Generation Outshone Those Who Came After

Once I was passing from place to place, and an old man met me and said to me: Rabbi, are these generations more worthy than those who came out of Egypt? See with your eyes and hear with your ears, for the generation of Moses had with them only the Torah alone, whereas these generations have with them Torah, Prophets, and Writings. I said to him: No. For those generations that lived from the day the First Temple was destroyed until the Second Temple was built had with them Torah, Prophets, Writings, and the dialectics of Torah, and even so they were not as worthy as those who came out of Egypt. And if you wish to learn and desire words of Torah, go and learn what is said of those who came out of Egypt (Jeremiah 2:2): "Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says the LORD: I remember for you the devotion of your youth, the love of your bridal days, your going after Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. Israel is holy to the LORD, the first of His produce." When those who came out of Egypt traveled in the wilderness, the Holy One, blessed be He, left nothing in His world that He did not reveal to Israel, as it says (Psalms 25:14): "The secret of the LORD is for those who fear Him, and His covenant, to make it known to them." And it says (Amos 3:7): "For the LORD God does nothing without revealing His secret to His servants the prophets." By the Temple service! I call heaven and earth to witness concerning me, that every day and every hour, when I remember all these deeds, I fall on my face to the ground and bless and exalt and praise and sanctify the name of Him who spoke and the world came to be, blessed be He and blessed be His name, the name of the King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, who sits and apportions sustenance to all who come into the world, to all the work of His hands, from man to beast to creeping thing to bird of the sky, and all the souls He created. David too praised those who came out of Egypt, for even the single commandment that was in their hand was pleasing before the Holy One, blessed be He, far more than many commandments of ours. And what was that single commandment in their hand? That they all gathered as one band and made a covenant to perform acts of lovingkindness with one another, and to keep the covenant of circumcision, which is the covenant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and not to abandon the language of Jacob our father, and not to learn the language of Egypt because of the ways of idolatry, as it says (II Samuel 7:23): "And who is like Your people Israel, one nation in the earth, whom God" - this is Moses and Aaron - "went to redeem for Himself as a people, and to make Himself a name, and to do for you great and awesome things for Your land, before Your people whom You redeemed for Yourself from Egypt, nations and their gods." Do not read it thus, but rather read: "before Your people Israel whom You redeemed for Yourself from Egypt, You cut off nations and their gods."