2021/5782
One of the most famous and important Rabbis of the past 1000 years is Rashi. Rashi’s commentary is so enthralling because it is learned by the greatest Rabbis since Rashi, as well as 4th graders learning a Chumash for the first time! There is no other commentary in Torah or anywhere else in the world that can equally be learned to the greatest depths by the greatest thinkers, as well as simply understood by the less educated!
At the end of this week's Parsha, the Torah says, “וישלח יצחק את־יעקב וילך פדנה ,ארם אל־לבן בן־בתואל֙ ,הארמי אחי רבקה אם יעקב ועשו” “Yitzchok sent off Yaakov and he went to Padenah Aram, to Lavan Ben Betuel Harami, the sister of Rivkah, mother of Yaakov and Esav” (28:5). Rashi is bothered: Why would the Pasuk repeat at the end of this Parsha that Rivkah is the mother of Yaakov and Esav? Isn't this known? Haven’t we gone through this entire Parsha starting with Rivkah’s birth of Yaakov and Esav to the deceiving of Yitzchok with the explicit knowledge that Rivkah is the mother of Yaakov and Esav? We know the Torah doesn’t waste words, so, why mention again that Rivkah is the mother of Yaakov and Esav? Rashi answers with three of the most difficult words anyone can say, “I don’t know!”
How can it be that Rashi, the explainer of the depths of the Torah and most of Shas, writes “I don’t know”? The Sifsei Chachamim answers that really Rashi knows a number of interpretations here, but he doesn’t know which one is correct. Still, Rashi was bold enough to say, “I don’t know.”
There is a cognitive bias called the Dunning-Kruger Effect. The Dunning-Kruger Effect shows that people do not — or cannot — recognize just how incompetent they are in certain areas of life. We have a habit of developing an irrational overconfidence, which overwhelms any mounting evidence of our own ignorance. A deeper reason why we do this is because, especially nowadays, we don’t want to be wrong. All of our mistakes are magnified due to social media and some will never go away. Also, due to the Internet, we tend to think of ourselves as experts in every area presenting that we have studied that area for years, but in reality we just spent the previous 5 minutes reading Wikipedia!
This overconfidence and over emphasis on being known as “the smart one,” has crippled us and impeded on our ability to learn! When we don’t know something it is an opportunity to ask questions and actually learn! When we pretend to know something we really don’t know, not only are we fooling others, but we are fooling ourselves into thinking we don’t need to try hard to learn! This applies to Torah as well as every other aspect in our lives!
We need to take the message of Rashi, who was wiser than all of us combined, and not be afraid to say “I don’t know,” if we really don’t! This in turn will allow us to learn and ultimately become the best versions of ourselves!