Chaim Burg

On Giants' Shoulders Chaim Burg

There's been an age-old battle: was there a decline of the generations after the Revelation at Mount Sinai or not? While many groups, particularly among the ultra-orthodox, cling to the first position, On Giant's Shoulders takes the second point-of-view. Because of their stand, the ultra-orthodox tend to ignore, reject and turn their backs on some of the most brilliant traditional Jewish thinking of the last few hundred years. They simply dismiss it. The school of thought who sees an improvement of the level of scholarship, ideas and thinking of the later generations, have gained greater depth and understand. There is a plethora of stimulation from the new ideas and innovations (chiddushim). Putting things in perspective: in the past, they worked with inaccurate handwritten manuscripts, suffered great difficulty in getting their hands on necessary books and depended solely on memory. In contradistinction, today's scholars work with accurate printed books, have the advantage of search engines to display a wide range of sources and are inundated with ideas which may lead to stunning conclusions. Not to mention, flash drives which place instantly thousands of books and sources - old and new- at their fingertips. I am also willing to believe that today's scholars have no less intelligence and capability than the giants of yesteryear. On Giant's Shoulders presents the battle of the generations - decline or improvement?