The Art of Asking Questions

 

“The art and science of asking questions is the source of all knowledge.” – Thomas Berger
“A Wise man’s question contains half the answer.” – Solomon Ibn Gabirol

Last night was the first night of Pesach when Jews commemorate and celebrate our ancestors’ "Exodus" from Egypt, and the liberation from slavery. The “Seder,” is the festive meal that opens this especially important Holy Day, recalling, reminding, and educating our younger generation about the significant chain of events which preceded that momentous outcome. It is chronicled in the “Haggadah,” the book we read during that occasion.

I remember my childhood “Seders.” Being a curious child, I wanted to know everything about it. I sought to learn why the Seder plate had certain foods on it or why the table was arranged the way it was. I also wanted to know why we eat "Matzah," "Charoset," and other kinds of food which are consumed only on this night and this Holy Day. I was curious about some of the terms and the logic behind some of the customs. I was eager to learn why this night was different than any other night. In short, I had many questions.

“What a great question,” I remember my father commenting on some of my queries. “And another good one,” he would remark on others as he was caressing me with his soft eyes. “Don’t ever stop asking,” he kept encouraging me, “we learn about our world and our life by asking questions.”

As I grew older and delved deeper into the content of the “Haggadah,” I realized that it was not my wisdom or dexterity that prompted me to ask all those “good questions” which made my father so proud of me. Rather, it was the ingenuity of those who, so prudently, crafted the art of asking questions - the essence, and the fabric of the “Haggadah.” The way they outlined the “Seder” (order in Hebrew), sparked my strong sense of curiosity, and led me to ask those questions.

A bird’s eye view of the “Haggadah” will reveal to us that it is laced with distinctive symbolic acts and food. It is not happenstance. They were deliberately created and aimed at raising curiosity, interest and stimulating inquisitiveness.

The directive to tell and retell the story of the “Exodus” is mentioned in the Torah. Moreover, it is provided in the form of a commandment weaving a hypothetical conversation between parent and child: “If your son asks you in time to come . . . you shall say to your son, ‘We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and G-d took us out of Egypt with a strong hand.’”  D’varim (Deuturonomy) 6:20-21. The wise rabbis understood that the telling over of the story of the “Exodus” is meant and should be in a question-and-answer format.

These sages, obviously, recognized that at the core of asking questions is the desire to know, learn and understand. Questions are the fuel of growth and the best way to gain deeper acumens. Asking questions is, in itself, a creative activity, perhaps the epitome of human creativity. The skill of asking questions is, according to Jerome Brunner, the ability to go “beyond given information.” It grants us the opportunity to examine issues from a different angle. The greatest inventors and scientists in human history, people such as Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and many others asked fundamental questions which eventually led to their marvelous breakthroughs.  Philosophers and thinkers devote their whole lives to asking questions about the meaning of life, morality, truth, human behaviour and the divinity of G-d.

Realizing the significance and developmental benefits of asking questions and since the “Seder” is all about provoking questions, the sages have also instituted a few unique rituals to be performed at the Seder table for the mere purpose of arousing curiosity among children, teaching and triggering them to probe for answers. The very fact that we are doing something different, they discerned, will lend itself to an additional question, answer, and further growth.

What a great legacy and what a blessing it is to be part of it.
Happy and meaningful Pesach.

When Does A Belief Become Part Of A Nation’s Historical Timeline?

The following article was written by Tal Gilad a Yisraeli journalist. It was translated into English by Bat-Zion Susskind-Sacks

It seems that there is no point anymore in addressing the question as to whether there was an Exodus from Egypt or not, since this issue and any opinion about it is affected mainly by agenda. Those who despise anything related to religion / faith (or in fact loathe anything other than Macchiato) qvell in the yearly opportunity to mock the entrenched myth, and whoever is for Bibi is also for Moses. For some reason, the two go hand in hand/ Yes, of course it is a generalization and I know that also on the Right there are those who scorn faith and currently hold haughty rational positions. That’s ok.

I have no doubt that the Exodus from Egypt did take place since we have no reason to believe it did not. What is unusual in a story about a People which wanders from one place to another? Had I wanted to invent an impressive myth about our origin, the last thing that would have jumped into my mind would be to describe us as a bunch of nebechs who had run away from their masters and on the way did some ugly deeds as the Tanach tells us. It would have been far more exciting to tell how the first Man fought an evil dragon but during the battle bumped into a bush which tore off his foreskin. And while he was hurting and bemoaning, a voice came out of Heaven and said: “Oh, Man, do not cry and do not despair, for this circumcised one will become a great nation.” A rain of children started to pour from Heaven and they became the People of Yisrael who overcame the dragon. And since then, we perform circumcision to commemorate the victory and we eat Matzot because the First Man broke the dragon’s head with a wooden board.

We can invent a hundred stories like this, per day. And indeed, there are plenty of such stories in other people’s mythologies.

The Exodus from Egypt does not fulfill the criterion of an unfounded tale. Remove the parts with miracles, if you wish, or reduce the number of people to a mere few thousands, still what is unreasonable about it? “There is no archaeological evidence.”

There is evidence,, however, it cannot be connected, with any certainty, to the Exodus from Egypt. Archaeology is a young discipline. About Egypt, in general, there is still much that is unknown. “No skeletons.” A skeleton erodes and crumbles in a matter of a few decades. What we find, occasionally, are a million years old fossils, lucky skeletons which were surrounded by conditions that allowed them to mix with the minerals and thus survived. Otherwise, the whole planet would be covered with human and animal skeletons.

The story of the Exodus from Egypt is detailed, long and filled with ups and downs and unpleasant details. Were it just a Harry Potter story, no one would have celebrated it every year, actually twice, Pesach and Sukkot. It is fair to assume that not everything happened exactly as told but its nucleus sounds entirely realistic.

Even the Egyptians had a somewhat incensed version of the story of the Exodus. Manetho, an Egyptian historian on the 3^rd century, B.C.E., claimed that the Children of Yisrael are the Hyksos, foreign rulers who were expelled out of Egypt in the 16^th century B.C.E. In ancient Egypt, “The lepers’ libel,” which claimed that the Children of Yisrael were forcefully banished since they were lepers, was circulated, Yuck.

Ok, let us leave a typical narrative of “no way have I lost,” the kind we  hear from our surrounding nations who continue to assert their victory even without their teeth and withn their head is stuck downward in a barrel. The fact is that the narrative refers to that tale. 

In Hebrew there are quite a few words which originated in ancient Egypt, including the name “Moshe (Moses)” which simply means “son.” The suffix, “messes” was commonly used in in ancient Egypt. One of the names that is related to Egypt is Ramsses II, who according to some researchers is the Pharoah mentioned in the Book of Exodus. Circumcision, which Jews practice to signify our unique covenant with G-d,  was customary in Egypt before we adopted it.

The Greek historian, Heroditus, states that “the Syrians who lived in Palestine” (The Jews who lived   and worked in the coastline area which was named after the Philistines) circumcise their sons in the Egyptian tradition, unlike other nations in the region.

Papyrus Ipower, the ancient Egyptian papyrus, describes events, some of which astonishingly resemble the ten plagues, which means that if it were a legend – it originated in Egypt. Ancient Egyptian wall paintings portray Semitic Peoples arriving to Egypt, nothing unusual about it, the Hyksos, likewise, were Semitic. Egypt’s protectorate spread all the way to Northern Eretz Yisrael, albeit shaky.

It all points to a strong bond between Am Yisrael and Egypt.

Were this story not related to religion, the tables would have been turned: the Left would have basked with great pleasure in the story of the Exodus from Egypt and see it as yet another proof that from the onset came from another Land. In fact, the average Leftist might have a dilemma here – who does it hate more, the Jewish faith or Eretz Yisrael. Hatred towards religion gains strength here in Yisrael because it is imprinted in our blood for many more generations. So let us say this – if the Right and the observant Jews insist that we came from Egypt, then perhaps it is true.

Humility

“Before Honour there is Humility.” – Proverbs 15:33

Humility, in my opinion, is one of the lessons of Parashat “Miketz.”

The story begins with Yosef’s childhood.

As it unfolds, we learn that, unlike his brothers, Yosef has been blessed with sublime foresight, wisdom and abilities. Unfortunately for him, since he was not the oldest, he had little, if any, say in everyday life or important matters that pertained to him as well. Imagine how frustrating it must have been for him having to follow the advice and directives of those who did not share his level of acuity. His older brothers must have felt it as well.

To add insult to injury, Yosef was also Ya’akov’s favourite son. The reason could be double fold. The first might be related to Yosef being his son from his beloved wife, Rachel. The second, he must have recognized Yosef’s talents from early on and thus preferred him over the others. Or was it perhaps because “he had been born to him in his old age,” as Bre’sheet 37 :3 tells us? Whatever the reason, Ya’akov never made his preferential attitude towards Yosef a secret much to the disdain of his older children. As a token of his love for Yosef, Ya’akov made an “ornate striped robe” for him.

That gesture by Ya’akov, naturally, was resented by his other sons. It developed into great, unbearable hatred which, as the story in Bresheet tells us, ignited in the brothers a burning desire to hurt Yosef and wish to dispose of him.

There is a question that is begging to be asked here. Why would an “ornate striped robe,” propagate such a deep-seated hatred towards Yosef?

Rachel Sivilia undertook the task of finding out. In her article entitled, “Joseph’s ornate robe, brotherly jealousy just because of a robe?” (http://www.daat.ac.il/daat/ktav_et/maamarim/sivilia6.pdf) Sivilia, states that she decided to research the clothing closet of that period according to their soc ial class . What prompted her to engage in it was a picture she saw of a wall painting in a tomb from ancient Egypt. It depicted a group portrait of a family or tribe who were on their way to Egypt to purchase wheat. What caught her attention was their garb. They were all wearing ornate striped robes of different fabrics and different colours.

According to Sivilia, different robes, their texture, their splashy hues were the marks of the social class of those who wore them. She, therefore, concludes that the robe given to Yosef was not only exceptional to the status of Yosef’s brothers but to that of Ya’akov as well. It classified him as nobility. He was their superior. It gave him the confirmation that he was above them.

It did not, however, stop at merely feeling superior. Yosef was not apprehensive about expressing his overflowing pride, arrogance and vanity through his dreams of dominance and preeminence.

It was evident that Yosef had not yet mastered the art of humility.

We can only imagine the frustration, jealousy and sense of revenge that brewed through his brothers like a burning fire. The eruption was imminent. As we know, they sold him to a convoy of Yishmaelites who took him to Egypt where he was sold as a slave to a man named Potifar.

The turning point Yosef’s life’s journey, the journey towards reaching maturity, adulthood, ridding himself of his vanity and above all reaching that point of rare integration between his exceptional talents and humility seems to have happened when Yosef was in prison. He was jailed following following the episode with Potifar’s wife who accused him of sexual harassment.

Even after all the hardships that he has endured, Yosef does not lose his faith in G-d. In prison, he ascends to a higher spiritual level when he realizes that his special gifts and abilities come from G-d. “The answers lie with G-d,” he tells Pharaoh’s wine steward and chef when they ask him to interpret their dreams. From the depth of his awareness of the source of his powers, sprouted his salvation.

“I cannot do it," Yosef, similarly, replied to Pharaoh, "but G-d will give Pharaoh the answer he desires" (Bresheet 41:16) is what Yosef answers Pharaoh when the latter asks him to explain  his dream. He has undoubtedly learned the importance of being modest and humble. Just then, when Yosef insists that his solution does not come from his ability but from G-d, just then Pharaoh finds him worthy of being freed from prison and serve as his right-hand man.

Is Yosef, perhaps, what Pharaoh was looking for, not just a talented man but a man of honour, a man who practices humility “one in whom is the spirit of God ?” (Genesis 41:38).

Shavua tov and Chodesh tov.