Brachos 4
After 210 years in slavery, the Children of
Israel are preparing to leave. So far, Heaven
has sent nine plagues to strike the Egyptians.
Moshe is told by Hashem to go to Pharaoh and inform him that at
midnight, He will smite every first-born.
Off he goes to the palace and appears
before Pharaoh. With a fierce wave of
his staff, Moshe warns the king: ‘At approximately midnight, G-d will smite
every first-born in the land!’
Rabbi Zeira taught: Moshe indeed knew
the exact time of midnight. If so, why
did he say “at approximately midnight”? Moshe was concerned that the
astrologers of Pharaoh would err with the timing and declare Moshe a liar.
As the teaching goes: One should
accustom oneself to respond ‘I don’t know,’ lest others ensnare you in allegations
of deceit.
In life, there are many situations when
it’s helpful to be knowledgeable.
Whether it’s at work or with your kids, knowledge is power. It’s a nice feeling when you know all the answers
to people’s questions.
But as any game-show participant will tell
you, the gravy train eventually runs out somewhere. Because nobody knows everything. And unless you’re on the game-show, it’s okay
to say, ‘I don’t know.’
Some people know everything about
everything. Until they don’t. But, not to worry, whatever they don’t know, they
can just make up. Who’ll know the
difference? Until one day, they’re
caught out, having offered ‘facts’ that don’t even come close to reality.
True people don’t need to prove anything to
anyone. They’re happier to listen to
others than to show off their knowledge.
Such people realise that it’s okay not to know everything. Nobody knows everything. Those who are humble about their knowledge
are often the ones who know the most. In
most cases, those who ‘know-it-all’ know very little and do a lot of talking to
cover up their general ignorance.
Here, Rabbi Zeira takes it a step
further. Instead of your default
position being one of knowing the answers until you’re stumped, how about
training yourself to a new default, one that assumes an ‘I don’t know’ position?
How does that work? Doesn’t that make you look foolish? Not in Moshe’s opinion. He preferred to appear unsure of himself,
rather than be accused of being anything less than 100% honest.
Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik says that a
rabbi should never answer a shayla (halachic query) immediately. Instead, he should say ‘I don’t know’ and
tell the questioner that he will look up the answer. He offers two reasons for this approach. Firstly, the Talmud warns a student against
responding to a halachic query in the presence of his teacher without
consulting with him, as it is considered disrespectful. Nowadays, explains Rav Soloveitchik, most
‘students’ have derived the bulk of their Torah knowledge from sefarim
(holy books). Therefore, the sefarim
are considered one’s teacher. As a
consequence, responding to a shayla without consulting with the sefarim
is akin to paskening (deciding the halacha) before one’s teacher without
consultation!
The second reason that a rabbi should
respond ‘I don’t know, let me get back to you’ is that if he were to respond
immediately, the questioner might assume that it was too basic a question. As a result, he may avoid asking questions in
the future for fear that he is posing overly-simple queries. When the rabbi responds that even he
doesn’t know the answer, it inspires confidence in the questioner that his
query is a really good question! In the
future, he will not hesitate to ask, thereby furthering his knowledge and
halachic practice!
And if that’s true of rabbis who are
well-versed in halachic matters, it should give us all pause next
time we rush to demonstrate our halachic or other knowledge! It’s okay to think about it overnight. Smart people have nothing to prove. They know that a little contemplation goes a
long way.
The wiser you are, the easier you find it
to say ‘I don’t know.’ You don’t need to
have all the answers immediately. May
you always respond with humility and take the time to investigate the facts and
contemplate the truth, without feeling the need to pretend you know it all!
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