Parashat Vayeitzei: When To Say I Don't Know

This week we learn to train yourself to follow the sages principle of teach your tongue to say I don't know. So before we get into it, the also says sometimes it's good to start off a shir with a joke. It opens up the hearts of people and also the minds. And since this joke is a scholarly joke, there's always room for it. And since I remember it, it's even more so. And since it has connection to our this week's para, as it always does, it even more so. In this week's para vets, leaves the yeshiva of Shem and Ev on the way to Lavan's house that he will later find out will literally try to destroy him in all of Israel as we read from the Pesak. He falls asleep at the place, a holy place, and he wakes up from a dream and he's scared because he realizes that he of its woke from his sleep and said, "Surely Hashem is present in this place and I did not know that's where the word where that's where the teachings of I I didn't know comes from where the sages say that a person should teach themselves how to say I don't know but as a side note there's a joke but certainly some mus from it there was once an evil priest that had a lot of control over the government that uh said that he wants to pass a decree to hurt the Jewish people and uh unless they could defeat him, defeat him in a debate where the first one in a debate that says I don't know not only loses but gets thrown off a bridge. Now while the sages of the time were debating who should go, who should go, some average Jew, not exactly known for his wisdom, if quite frankly the opposite, he was known as a fool, comes in and he says to thee, "Listen, let me go and debate this priest. I'll go to the bridge. You Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Listen, best case scenario, I win. Worst case scenario, if I lose, they throw me off a bridge and you guys don't have to worry about anything because if they come to you say, "Listen, you're gonna get punished now." Say, "No, we didn't send such a fool. It's not our fault." And this, by the way, is a something that has done several times over the years and it's mentioned. So anyway, they say say, "Go ahead, go for it." He goes to the bridge. Of course, the priest is with his people. Everyone's excited to defeat another Jew. And they see this lowly Jew. He says, "Okay, priest. I'm ready for this uh debate, but since you are so honorable and so majestic and so respected and so much more knowledgeable than I am, I think that it's fair that I get the first question." And the priest, of course, with his arrogance says, "Sure, go ahead. What can you possibly ask me?" He says, "Well, can you please give me The meaning of the verse where the Torah says, "What does it mean?" And the priest says, "I don't know." quickly his foolish people that were supposed to guard him take him and throw him off the bridge. Now, of course, that's actually what the verse means. Means I don't know, but they didn't know that. But the clever, foolish, average Joe, average Jew, I should say, wins the contest, is celebrated, comes back to the Jews, and they all ask him, "Listen, amazing. Great job. HOW DID YOU DO IT? HOW DID YOU KNOW that he's going to fall for the trick?" Goes, "What trick? What are you talking about? How did you know you're going to defeat him that way? Goes, "What do you mean?" For 20 years, I've been coming to synagogue and we get to this para and I look at the para and I see the translation and over there in the translation it says, he says, "I don't know." So I asked the religious guy next to me, "What does this mean?" And he says, "I don't know." And I asked the guy next to me, "What does this mean?" "I don't know." So then I went to the rabbi. I asked him, "What do you What about this one?" "I don't know. Nobody knows." So I went to a different synagogue and I asked them, and they kept saying, "I don't know. I don't know." I asked big rabbis, rabbis that were visiting. For 20 years, I've been asking rabbis and different religious people, "What does this mean?" And they kept telling me, "I don't So I figured if these big rabbis and these religious people all don't know then surely this priest doesn't know either. [laughter] So a little humor at the expense of the uh of the enemies. But nonetheless this is actually something that the brings several times that similar similar things happened uh throughout Jewish history in order for amat to save itself. But the truth be told is that the is telling us that this is actually something that a person needs to train themselves. Train yourself to say I don't know. Now why would somebody want to train themsel to say I don't know? I mean this quite frankly seems like it's the opposite of the mo today. It's the opposite of the way people behave. In fact, he says, "Train yourself to follow the sages principle to teach your tongue to say I don't know." And when people who are careless in this specific teaching of I don't know, speak to you about frivolous matters, you should use any means possible to avoid conversation. And if you cannot, you should offer the briefest answers possible, no more than absolutely necessary. So obviously here without us understanding what is this teaching of I don't know, we're going to be dumbfounded. We're going to be at a place where we have no idea where to go. So of course we have to find what does it mean to say I don't know and why is it great? Inhot page 4a. This you will also find in edits in zut chapter 31. And the talks about when is midnight and it says who knew exactly when midnight is says knew what midnight was because woke up at midnight each day to pray to hashem. And he had even a uh special musical instrument, a harp that would automatically by itself he positioned it in such a way that the air would go through it and it would make music in the middle of the night to wake him up. He said but knew when midnight is and Mosherenu didn't know. Said why do you think Mosherenu didn't know? Because when P told him about the plagues to stop it, when is it going to be? Is it going to be at uh certain time and Mosherenu pretending like he doesn't know the exact time? It's going to be around midnight. Meaning Mosher Rabenu made it seem as if he didn't know what what when midnight was. So the sages say no, no, no. Mosher Rabenu did know exactly when midnight is. It's just that Mosher Rabenu was teaching us that you have to teach your tongue to say, "I don't know, lest you be caught in falsehood." We are meant to be a light unto the nations, not to follow their misguided practices. [music] Remember, every Jew has to remember that he's a Jew and she's a Jew. We don't celebrate non-Jewish holidays, even if they seem harmless. It's [music] ail disrespect to the Torah.