Wisdom and the Wise
Real questions, submitted by actual OU Torah followers, with their real answers. NOTE: For questions of practical halacha, please consult your own rabbi for guidance.
Q. I want to become an intellectual like you. What should I do to become an intellectual person?
A. Thanks for your question. I don't know that I would consider myself an intellectual but my best advice would be to read. A lot. Read critically. Keep an open mind and be willing to reevaluate what you think you know. Talk less and listen more. Challenge yourself intellectually. And then read some more.
Q. What do you mean by reading critically? What do you mean by open minded? How can I challenge myself intellectually?
A. Don't just passively accept everything you read; analyze it. Consider its deeper implications, how it interacts with other things you've learned and how it applies to situations in your life.
Keep an open mind: don't be stubborn with your preconceptions. Be willing to change your opinions when presented with sufficiently compelling evidence.
Challenge yourself: expose yourself to new ideas. Don't just commit them to memory, work at them until you truly understand them.
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Q. I want to know the difference between reading and studying and which is more important. Many rabbis say to study Torah not to read Torah. How can I become a scholar and how should I study?
A. A while back you asked me how to become an intellectual; becoming a scholar is different. To be an intellectual, I would say that you need a breadth of knowledge. To be a scholar, you need a depth of knowledge. That requires study. Learning the sources in depth, with multiple commentaries, and often with commentaries on those commentaries. Those commentaries may disagree, and then you have to examine why. And you have to cross-reference everything you learn with everything else you learn so that it's all one giant, unified body of knowledge. So yes, to be a scholar, don't read. Study.
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Q. How do you interpret the reference to the sages in Isaiah 44:25?
“Who annul the omens of diviners, and make fools of the seers; Who turn sages back and make nonsense of their knowledge.”
A. Thanks for your question. When we speak of "the Sages," we mean the recognized Torah authorities. The verse in Isaiah refers to “wise men,” i.e., scholars of secular knowledge. (In Greek through Medieval times, they might have been called philosophers; today we might say scientists.) The intention of the verse is that anything we think we know might be wrong, except for what we know from the Torah.
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(The following question refers to Daniel chapter 12, in which we are told that the wise will shine like the Heavens.)
Q. The Torah hasn’t been understood for years. “The wise” isn’t a group, it’s a person (the anointed one).
A. I’m afraid you're mistaken about “the wise.” The word in Hebrew is הַמַּשְׂכִּלִים (in the plural), variously translated as "they that are wise" (JPS), "Those who are wise" (NIV), "they that be wise" (KJV), etc. I see that you're writing from Utah, so just in case you're LDS, I looked up the Joseph Smith translation and it's the same as the KJV. So it’s not only Jews who agree that “the wise” indisputably refers to a class of people and not to one individual.
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Q. Were the forbidden tree’s effects delayed long enough for Eve to give the fruit to Adam? Were her eyes not opened until it says the eyes of them both were open? Did she already know this was not a good thing when she gave it to Adam? Did Eve give it to Adam out of malicious intent or positive intent?
A. That’s an interesting question. I don't recall seeing anything on this per se. Rashi on 3:6 cites a Midrash that Eve gave Adam the fruit because she didn't want to be mortal and die only to have Adam live forever and eventually forget her. This is a selfish motivation but it doesn't seem to be a consequence of eating the fruit. Since verse 7 says “the eyes of both of them were opened,” and since Eve didn't feel self-conscious and compelled to sew fig leaves together before seeking out Adam, I'm inclined to think that it was a delayed reaction that affected them both around the same time.
Rabbi Jack's latest book, Ask Rabbi Jack, is now available from Kodesh Press and on Amazon.com.