"The Talmud shows us how to ask questions"

At the meeting last night of the Sinai Temple Men's Club, the great Elie Alyeshmerni gave a D'var Torah on questions that engage and those that end the conversation, before David Bernstein presented his book, Woke Antisemitism. Here is a lightly edited excerpt: 

1. This Dvar Torah is about questions and engaging.
2. When I was 11 years old, I was introduced to a section of the Talmud that asked a question that intrigued me. The question was what is the responsibility of a person who loses an item he has been given to safekeep?
3. Even though the author of this Talmudic section Baba Metzia knew the conclusion, he did not give it to us right away. He made us go through examples and counterexamples. It took us three weeks to get through it.
4. Nearly seven decades later, I still remember the answer. I remember it because of the process of engagement I went through. (In case you want to know the answer, it is simply that if you were given consideration -- a fee -- you are responsible. Otherwise, not.
5. The Talmud engaged us. Engaging is our legacy. میراث
6. Our leaders engaged with God. Think of Abraham pleading on behalf of the people of Sodom, Jacob struggling with an angel, Moses pleading for the Jews who had angered God, Job engaging God.
7. Engaging is done through respectful questioning. When Isidor Isaac Rabi who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1944 was asked about what led to his success. He credited his upbringing. His parents would ask him whether he had asked a good question in school that day.
8. But engaging and asking questions is not only a Jewish phenomenon. Socrates thought that the truth is reached by asking questions. Hegel talks of thesis and antithesis resulting in synthesis. Thesis is the status quo; antithesis articulates the problems with the thesis’ synthesis is a modification of the thesis that resolves the problem. True synthesis requires hearing both sides. 
9. Lately, we do not want to hear from the other side. We do not question anymore because we know the answers and we are sure of the answers. Why is it so? One answer is that we tend to read mostly what we agree with. The other side’s position becomes more and more distant to us. But when we conclude that a position taken by nearly 50% of the people is wrong, we need to re-engage. We need to understand more. We need to hope to find a person on the other side who can explain that side well.
10. How do we get there? By asking a good question. But we need real questions. Not those that parade as a question but are statements. “When did you stop beating your wife”? is not a question. It is an accusation. What evidence do you have that that is the case? is a question.
11. The Talmud shows us how to ask questions. The question must move the conversation forward. 
12. The Talmud exhausts all discussions till it reaches a conclusion. In very rare cases, it leaves the answer for when the משיח comes.
13. We may think we do the same thing when we say, “Let’s agree to disagree”. But here we are giving up on the conversation. The best thing we can do is to ask a good question of an intelligent well-spoken person who offers another perspective. 

The result of Eli's D'Var Torah was a respectful, informative, spirited discussion -- from multiple perspectives -- of an increasingly important topic. Yasher koach, Eli.