시편 16:3의 Kabbalah

There is a second group which avoids this science with various arguments, though all [its members] admit the eminence of the discipline. Some say that not all are worthy to enter into the study of [such] sublime wisdom. They even imagine, in their zealousness for the Lord of Hosts and His Torah, that they must punish those who pursue it, since they feel that [the Kabbalists] have dared to deal with matters divine, beyond the ken of most people. These matters, [they say,] must not be dealt with by men of little worth. When one presses them [regarding] the ancients who pursued [this subject], they reply: “Who are we [in comparison] with them, the holy ones on the earth (Ps. 16:3), [that we should deal] with these lofty mysteries?”¹It is a commonplace in rabbinic Judaism to assume that previous generations were inherently more knowledgeable in Torah. Cf. Shabbat 112b: “If the first [sages] were as angels, then we are as men; if they were as men, then we are as donkeys.”