Avira, it mentions that 4 Tannaim went up to the pardes – I don’t think it says they learned there. 3 of the 4 had terrible outcomes for going there. Do they think the Besht was greater than Tannaim? That he was able to regularly go to Shamayim?
Yes, Eliyahu taught many, but he came to them, not the other way around.
As for hearing things maachorei hapargod, that just proves my point – they couldn’t get into the “main” areas, they had to stay behind the curtain, and overhear things. On Yom Kippur we have the famous piyut, where R’ Yishmoel the Kohen Gadol went up – and he couldn’t even get to achorei hapargod. He had to ask a malach, who himself had only heard maachorei hapargod!
I can’t believe that someone from just a few hundred years ago was on a higher level than the Tannaim, went to Shamayim, received a new way to practice Judaism, and was told to share it.
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