Answering Questions One pagers
“ Teach the tongue to say ‘I do not know’ and thou shalt progress” - Rav Tzadok
3 Reasons Questions Are Better Than Answers By: Jonathan Pearson
Questions push us to more. Answers make us think we’re done. – Think about it… once we get the answer, we’re done. We’ve discovered it. There’s no need to go further. When we have questions, however, we’re pushed to more, we’re pushed to keep going until we get the answer. It’s in the pushing for more that we learn so much more than just the answer to one question. It’s in pushing for more that we grow and discover the most.
בשו"ת מהר"ם אלשקר ס' מ"ב A wise question is half the answer
שאלת חכם חצי תשובה
To Advance, Search for a Black Cat in a Dark Room,
Review of Ignorance How It Drives Science by Stuart Firestein Sandra Blakeslee, NYT, June 18, 2012 Scientists, Dr. Firestein says, are driven by ignorance. In this sense, ignorance is not stupidity. Rather, it is a particular condition of knowledge: the absence of fact, understanding, insight or clarity about something. It is a case where data don’t exist, or more commonly, where the existing data don’t make sense.… The book comes at an important time. Today’s most vociferous scientific controversies turn on different interpretations of facts — about climate change, about contraception, about evolution. When politics are injected, the shouting grows louder, the thinking muddier. Uncertainty is a dirty word. Dr. Firestein, by contrast, celebrates a tolerance for uncertainty, the pleasures of scientific mystery and the cultivation of doubt. If more people embraced the seductive appeal of uncertainty, he says, it might take some acrimony out of our public debates. To get a feel for how scientists really think, he offered this advice: Next time you meet a scientist — at a dinner party, at your child’s school, just by chance — don’t ask her to explain what she does. Ask her what she’s trying to figure out.
Tehillim 105 3. Boast of His holy name; may the heart of those who seek the Lord rejoice. 4. Search for the Lord and His might; seek His presence constantly.
תהלים קא : הִ תְ הַ לְ לּו בְ שֵׁ ם קָ ְדש ֹו י ְִשמַ ח לֵׁב | מְ בַ ְקשֵׁ י יְהֹ וָה.ג : ִד ְרשּו יְהֹ וָה וְ עֻּז ֹו בַ ְקשּו פָ נָיו תָ ִמיד.ד
“To ask is to believe that somewhere there is an answer. The fact that throughout history people have devoted their lives to extending the frontiers of knowledge is a compelling testimony to the restlessness of the human spirit and its constant desire to go further, higher, deeper. Far from faith excluding questions, questions testify to faith – that history is not random, that the universe is not impervious to our understand, that what happens to us is not blind chance. We ask, not because we doubt, but because we believe.” - The Chief Rabbi’s Haggadah (Essays) p. 106
Questions power humility, answers can end in pride. – If we’re someone that tends to have all the answers or know a bunch of stuff, it can cause pride to grow inside of us. Questions, though keep us humble. As long as there is a burning question in us, we never think we’ve discovered or become it all.
Kol Dodi Dofek– Chapter 2 pg. 13 Indeed! This is the answer that was given by the Creator to Job. As long as Job, as a slave of fate, philosophized about reasons, and motives, and demanded insight into the essence of evil, continually asking and murmuring: “Why and wherefore does suffering come,” the Holy One answered him sharply with the pointed question: “Did you know?” (Job 39:1). [Did you know] who it is who darkens counsel by speaking words without knowledge? Gird up now your loins like a man, for I will demand of you and you shall declare unto Me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare if you have such understanding…. Do you know the time when the wild goats of the rock will give birth; when the hinds will calve? –Job 38:2-4, 39:1 If you do not know the alphabet of creation, why be so impudent as to ask questions about the workings of the world? But once Job realized how strange his question was and how great his ignorance, and acknowledged it and was not ashamed to say: “Therefore I have uttered that which I did not understand; things too wonderful for me which I know not” (Job 42:3)
Questions force comradery with others, answers tend to isolate. – Asking questions causes us to seek out other people that we think may have the answer. We build bonds and relationships with these people in order to find our answer. If we have the answer, these relationships and desire to connect slowly disappear… we think we don’t need other people.
3 Reasons Questions Are Better Than Answers By: Jonathan Pearson
Questions push us to more. Answers make us think we’re done. – Think about it… once we get the answer, we’re done. We’ve discovered it. There’s no need to go further. When we have questions, however, we’re pushed to more, we’re pushed to keep going until we get the answer. It’s in the pushing for more that we learn so much more than just the answer to one question. It’s in pushing for more that we grow and discover the most.
בשו"ת מהר"ם אלשקר ס' מ"ב A wise question is half the answer
שאלת חכם חצי תשובה
To Advance, Search for a Black Cat in a Dark Room,
Review of Ignorance How It Drives Science by Stuart Firestein Sandra Blakeslee, NYT, June 18, 2012 Scientists, Dr. Firestein says, are driven by ignorance. In this sense, ignorance is not stupidity. Rather, it is a particular condition of knowledge: the absence of fact, understanding, insight or clarity about something. It is a case where data don’t exist, or more commonly, where the existing data don’t make sense.… The book comes at an important time. Today’s most vociferous scientific controversies turn on different interpretations of facts — about climate change, about contraception, about evolution. When politics are injected, the shouting grows louder, the thinking muddier. Uncertainty is a dirty word. Dr. Firestein, by contrast, celebrates a tolerance for uncertainty, the pleasures of scientific mystery and the cultivation of doubt. If more people embraced the seductive appeal of uncertainty, he says, it might take some acrimony out of our public debates. To get a feel for how scientists really think, he offered this advice: Next time you meet a scientist — at a dinner party, at your child’s school, just by chance — don’t ask her to explain what she does. Ask her what she’s trying to figure out.
Tehillim 105 3. Boast of His holy name; may the heart of those who seek the Lord rejoice. 4. Search for the Lord and His might; seek His presence constantly.
תהלים קא : הִ תְ הַ לְ לּו בְ שֵׁ ם קָ ְדש ֹו י ְִשמַ ח לֵׁב | מְ בַ ְקשֵׁ י יְהֹ וָה.ג : ִד ְרשּו יְהֹ וָה וְ עֻּז ֹו בַ ְקשּו פָ נָיו תָ ִמיד.ד
“To ask is to believe that somewhere there is an answer. The fact that throughout history people have devoted their lives to extending the frontiers of knowledge is a compelling testimony to the restlessness of the human spirit and its constant desire to go further, higher, deeper. Far from faith excluding questions, questions testify to faith – that history is not random, that the universe is not impervious to our understand, that what happens to us is not blind chance. We ask, not because we doubt, but because we believe.” - The Chief Rabbi’s Haggadah (Essays) p. 106
Questions power humility, answers can end in pride. – If we’re someone that tends to have all the answers or know a bunch of stuff, it can cause pride to grow inside of us. Questions, though keep us humble. As long as there is a burning question in us, we never think we’ve discovered or become it all.
Kol Dodi Dofek– Chapter 2 pg. 13 Indeed! This is the answer that was given by the Creator to Job. As long as Job, as a slave of fate, philosophized about reasons, and motives, and demanded insight into the essence of evil, continually asking and murmuring: “Why and wherefore does suffering come,” the Holy One answered him sharply with the pointed question: “Did you know?” (Job 39:1). [Did you know] who it is who darkens counsel by speaking words without knowledge? Gird up now your loins like a man, for I will demand of you and you shall declare unto Me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare if you have such understanding…. Do you know the time when the wild goats of the rock will give birth; when the hinds will calve? –Job 38:2-4, 39:1 If you do not know the alphabet of creation, why be so impudent as to ask questions about the workings of the world? But once Job realized how strange his question was and how great his ignorance, and acknowledged it and was not ashamed to say: “Therefore I have uttered that which I did not understand; things too wonderful for me which I know not” (Job 42:3)
Questions force comradery with others, answers tend to isolate. – Asking questions causes us to seek out other people that we think may have the answer. We build bonds and relationships with these people in order to find our answer. If we have the answer, these relationships and desire to connect slowly disappear… we think we don’t need other people.
