Subject: In Memory of Baruch Yitzchak ben Yirmiyahu (Barry Pessin)
From: Heath Berkin <heath.berkin@gmail.com>
Date: 2/24/2017, 4:23 AM
To: Heath Berkin <heath.berkin@gmail.com>
BCC: menachem@alonsystems.com
The Mishna in Avos (5;7) says "there are seven distinctions between a golem and a wise person....(a wise person) if he hasn't heard a particular answer or explanation he concedes that he hasn't heard".
Continuing on from last week, the fifth distinction between a golem
and a wise person is whether or not they are honest about the fact that they don't have the answer.
In talmudic times most of the laws and teachings were passed down from teacher to student. When a debate would erupt about a certain law each side would state over what they heard from their teachers, but in some cases reconciling the law would be established based on logical arguments without a tradition from their teachers. In these cases, if the logic is refutable then it wouldn't be considered as a basis for the law, but if this logic was a tradition passed down from teacher to student then it would carry much greater weight. Some students convinced of their logical reasoning may therefore be tempted to claim the argument/logic was in fact stated from their teacher as part of the tradition as opposed to an understanding that the student came to on his own. The Mishna is therefore stating that fabricating the source of a logical argument is not the way of a wise person. Instead this student should admit that the logic is his own and therefore refutable.
I think this can be understood in another sense as well. The Mishna may be telling us that a wise person admits when they don't know something as opposed to fabricating an answer. Many times we are faced with questions and dilemmas we need to solve in work or in our interpersonal relationships. It is sometimes very difficult to admit that we simply don't know, we don't have the answer. How many times do we pretend that we know what we are doing or talking about when we really don't? I don't think we need to go announce that we don't know something, but if someone asks us a question or for advice and they need our help, if we aren't qualified to deal with the issue we should humbly admit our lack of knowledge in this area. It is interesting to note that this is a trait that the Mishna attributes to the "wise".
It is possible to say that a wise person isn't someone who knows everything (because nobody knows everything), but a wise person is someone who knows (and admits) what he doesn't know.