Torah’s light radiates across all time

נח הי' צריך סעד לתמכו.

Noach needed support to uphold him.

Chazal teach that Noach required assistance to sustain him in his avodah; unlike Avraham, he could not stand entirely on his own merit.

כי קודם קבלת התורה אמרו חז"ל שכ"ו דורות שמקודם.

For before the giving of the Torah, Chazal said that the twenty-six generations that preceded it...

The twenty-six generations from Adam until Matan Torah lived in a world that did not yet possess the Torah to hold it up.

הי' רק בחסדו של מקום ב"ה.

...existed only by the chesed of the Omnipresent, Blessed is He.

Those early generations were carried entirely by Hashem’s kindness, since the sustaining merit of Torah was not yet present in the world.

ולכן יש כ"ו כל"ח בהלל הגדול.

And this is why there are twenty-six repetitions of "ki l’olam chasdo" (for His kindness is eternal) in the Great Hallel.

The twenty-six refrains of "for His kindness endures forever" in Hallel HaGadol (Tehillim 136) correspond to those twenty-six generations sustained purely by Hashem’s chesed.

אכן אברהם אע"ה איתא שקיים כל התורה קודם שניתנה.

However, it is taught regarding Avraham Avinu that he fulfilled the entire Torah before it was given.

Avraham rose to such a level that he kept the whole Torah even before Matan Torah, drawing its light into the world ahead of time.

ועליו נאמר מי הקדמני ואשלם.

And about him it is said: "Who has come before Me, that I should repay him?" (Iyov 41:3)

Avraham "came before" the Torah was given, anticipating the ratzon Hashem; therefore Hashem repays him — he served before he was ever commanded.

שהמשיך הארת התורה אף לפני קבלת התורה וע"ז נאמר התהלכתי לפניו וזה בכח מסירת נפש שהפיל עצמו לאור כשדים כי באמת התורה הי' קודם שנברא העולם.

For he drew down the light of the Torah even before its receiving, and concerning this it is said, "I walked before Him"; and this was through the power of mesirus nefesh (self-sacrifice), when he cast himself into the furnace of Ur Kasdim — for in truth the Torah preceded the creation of the world.

By casting himself into the fiery furnace, Avraham earned to draw the Torah’s light into the world before its time, reconnecting the world to the Torah that already existed before Creation itself.

ובתורה נברא העולם.

And through the Torah the world was created.

The Torah was the blueprint of Creation, so its light is woven into the very fabric of the world.

אך שמקודם לא הי' יכול להתגלות אור התורה בעולם עד אחר יצ"מ ששינה הקב"ה הטבע.

Yet at first the light of the Torah could not be revealed in the world until after Yetzias Mitzrayim, when the Holy One changed the natural order.

The Torah’s light stayed hidden within nature until the Exodus, when Hashem broke the laws of nature with open miracles and made that light able to shine openly.

אבל אברהם אע"ה ששינה הטבע ומסר נפשו זכה להרגיש אור התורה קודם שניתנה.

But Avraham Avinu, who changed nature and gave over his soul, merited to feel the light of the Torah before it was given.

Through his own breaking of nature by mesirus nefesh, Avraham personally rose above the natural world and could already sense the Torah’s light before Matan Torah.

והתורה מאירה לפני' ולאחרי' וכן כל הנפלאות מהבורא ית' מאירין לפניהם ולאחריהם וכפי זכות האדם יכול להרגיש אור מדורות הראשונים ומדור האחרון:

And the Torah illuminates both before it and after it; likewise all the wonders of the Creator, Blessed is He, shine both before them and after them — and according to a person’s merit he can sense the light of the earliest generations and of the final generation.

The light of every wondrous Divine event radiates both backward and forward in time. A person of sufficient zechus can draw on that radiance, taking inspiration from the great early generations and from the final generation of geulah alike.

Summary: Whereas the early generations were upheld only by Hashem’s chesed, Avraham Avinu, through mesirus nefesh, rose above nature and drew the Torah’s pre-Creation light into the world before it was given — teaching that the light of Torah and of Hashem’s wonders radiates across all of time, and each person can connect to it according to his merit.