Learn to Say I Don't Know | TORAH FOR KIDS AI

Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely Hashem is present in this place and I did not know." 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 musar from it. There was once an evil priest that had a lot of control over the government that said that he wants to pass a decree to hurt the Jewish people. And unless they could defeat him, defeat him in a debate, where the first one in the debate that says, "I don't know." Not only loses, but gets thrown off a bridge. Now, while the sages, chachamim, 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 the chachamim, "Listen, let me go and debate this priest. I'll go to the bridge." You? Yeah, yeah, yeah, listen. Best case scenario, I win. >> [music] >> Worst case scenario, if I lose, they throw me off a bridge and you guys don't have to worry about anything cuz if they come to you say, "Listen, you're going to get punished now." Say, "No, we didn't send out such a fool, it's not our fault." And this by the way is a something that the chachamim said that Amisadai has done several times over the years and it's mentioned in the Gemara. 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 when they see this lowly Jew. He says, "Okay, priest, I'm ready for this 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." 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 v'anochi lo yadati?" 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. "I don't really know what that 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?" He says, "What trick? What are you talking about?" "How did you know you're going to defeat him that way?" He says, "What do you mean? For 20 years, I've been coming to synagogue and we get to this parashah, and I look at the parashah and I see the translation, and over there in the translation, it says, "I don't know what that means." It 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, asked him, "What do you What about this one?" "I don't know." Nobody knows. So, I went to a different synagogue and 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 know. So, I figured if these big rabbis and these religious people all don't know, then surely this priest doesn't know either. So, a little humor at the expense of the uh of the enemies, but nonetheless, this is actually something that the Gemara brings. Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan is telling us 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 themselves to say, "I don't know"? I mean, this [music] 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 with 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? The Gemara in Maseches Berachos, page 4A. This you will also find in Maseches Derech Eretz in Zuta, chapter 31. And the Gemara talks about when is midnight? And it says, "Who knew exactly when midnight is?" It says David Hamelech knew what midnight was because David Hamelech woke up at midnight each day to pray to Hashem. And he had even a 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. So, what? David Hamelech knew when midnight is and Moshe Rabbeinu didn't know. So, why do you think Moshe Rabbeinu didn't know? Because when Pharaoh told him about the plagues to stop it, uh when is it going to be? Is it going to be at a certain time? And Moshe Rabbeinu pretended like he doesn't know the exact time. It's going to be around midnight. Meaning Moshe Rabbeinu made it seem as if he didn't know what what when midnight was. So, the sages say, "No, no, no. Moshe Rabbeinu did know exactly when midnight is. It's just that Moshe Rabbeinu was teaching us that you have to teach your tongue to say, 'I don't know.' Lest you be caught in falsehood." Baruch Hashem and say thank Hashem for more Torah. 1 2 Baruch Hashem. 1 2 3 B H Kids >> [music]