T200 PNC - Why the Tzaddikim of Our Time Are Wealthy

The earlier tzaddikim were mostly poor; the tzaddikim of recent generations are often wealthy. Why? Rebbe Nachman hints at the Mishnah in Avot (4:9): "All who fulfill the Torah from poverty will in the end fulfill it from wealth." We are in an era where the accumulated spiritual merit of generations of poor Torah-devotion is now manifesting as material blessing. The generation has "earned" its wealth through the poverty-Torah of its ancestors. This is not a corruption of the tzaddikim but the fulfillment of a divine promise.