Moderators – I am disappointed that such blatant disregard for the previous generations was allowed on this forum.
lesschumras – First of all, watch what you call a myth. A little respect, please! It always intrigued me that many of the people who bash the “frummies” tend to speak so disparagingly of (or even show blatant disrespect to) the Rabbonim, Midrashim, Minhagim, and in general any part of Judiasim that they do not not fully at the first glance. I think it says a thing or two about their commitment to Judiasim in general, don’t you?
Secondly, as Health mentioned, the yetzer hara for avodah zorah is no longer around, so we cannot fathom how strong it was. There’s the famous story of the Rebbi who mocked King Menashe for his dedication to avodah zorah, and then Menashe came to him in a dream and said something like “if you would have been alive in those days, you would have run after avodah zorah all day”.
“If they were o holy, why does the Gemorra spen so much time duscussing theft, shady business dealings etc?”
Please. The Gemora did not only discus cases that were brought to the courts: quite the contrary, they went through every obscure case they could think of so future generations would know what to do no matter what came up.