Q&A: Deleting a Question.
Deleting a Question.
Question
Dealing with a question.
Is deleting a question in the responsa section, when it reflects back the Rabbi’s own views without, heaven forbid, distorting them, not a sign of fleeing, heaven forbid, from the truth?
More to the point, I’d be glad to know what one is not allowed to ask about, so that I won’t ask again and then discover that my question was deleted.
(The previous question was sent by mistake without any content.)
Answer
I didn’t understand a thing.
Nothing was deleted here. There was one question that was sent with no content at all (it was empty), exactly as happened to you with this question, and therefore I deleted it. I didn’t even notice it was yours. As you know very well, anything may be asked here. And please spare me all this self-righteous “heaven forbid.”
I understand that perhaps you meant to hold up a mirror showing that I have no views, and therefore you sent an empty question. Through my sins, and because of the profundity of the concept and the limitation of the one grasping it, I did not descend to the depth of the matter.
Discussion on Answer
May the holy congregation here forgive me if I refer to a song by Naomi Shemer
https://shironet.mako.co.il/artist?type=lyrics&lang=1&prfid=738&wrkid=17202
Tam,
You are testing my patience in ways it has never been tested before. For many years I have answered every questioner with very great patience, and it seems to me that you are one of the greatest proofs of my sometimes unbelievable patience (sorry for praising myself, but it’s true). You ask careless and undefined questions. You write enormous scrolls full of verbiage devoid of any sense or meaning, including the use of concepts of which you do not have the faintest idea what they even mean. When I ask for clarification, you don’t bother to provide it, but instead whine and complain about my short temper. When I answer, you don’t understand what I answered, and then you go back and repeat the same questions again and again and are surprised that I tell you I already answered.
Now you send me three questions within a matter of minutes, two of them empty, and the third lamenting that I deleted a question of yours (which was empty). And when I explain to you that the question was empty, you send here in this thread a thick hint the size of a beam from an olive press that I’m lying (not likely, etc.). You season all this with self-righteous terms like “heaven forbid” every other word, and that maybe I should teach you what is permitted and forbidden to ask, and again hint that I’m trying to evade your sharp, unanswerable questions. You should know that your questions are really not at a level that challenges me or that I need to run away from. Believe me, I’ve encountered much better questions already (in fact, the overwhelming majority of the questions I’ve been asked were better).
After I reached the very end of my patience (notice: this didn’t happen over many years, and tens of thousands of questions and meetings and phone calls and emails and on the site and more), and found myself, to my astonishment, swearing that I would no longer answer you, because you refuse to understand what I write to you and keep muddling my brain every time with the same questions in different formulations, you dare suggest to me various tricks for how to get around my oath. In your great foolishness, you suggest that I answer others with those same foolish questions that you asked. As if there were some personal persecution here and I’m not answering because the questions are yours. Well, that’s not it. Don’t flatter yourself. I’m not answering because the questions are foolish and have already been answered dozens of times. It really doesn’t matter to me who asked them. On other questions that you asked, I made sure to answer you like anyone else, and you know that very well. We spoke on the phone for over an hour, and I think my patience toward you has truly crossed all boundaries. I am really proud of myself for the way I’ve treated you.
But even that will end eventually. I’m human too, and if you continue with your nonsense, I will simply delete everything you write here.
Once again you managed to bring me to write in a way I have never written. You broke yet another record. Shame on you.
And no, this was not the hand of God. Certainly according to my view, that He is not involved, but even according to the views that disagree, this was simply your negligence, as usual; you didn’t bother to check what you were writing and what you were sending. But apparently it’s best to whine about my attitude instead of investing one more minute of your own and checking what you write.
Wow, I’ve never seen Michi like this in my life! And I’m a devoted reader of almost all the responsa on the site.
I don’t want to interfere, but maybe it was worth it…
Michi’s patience really is not human. It’s something that is entirely in the realm of a miracle. And that was always hard for me—sometimes when you encounter something that is really not human, you lose all respect… Here there should be a link to Michi’s remarks that the greatness of sages is precisely because they are human. And the same applies here.
In any case, I always wanted to see where Michi’s limit was. And now, if only in order to marvel and make one appreciate even more the patience that there has been until now. So at least I got to see this type of extreme reaction from Michi.
Anyway, in summary, Michi, I say to you: truly, many thanks for everything! It deserves great appreciation!
I also join in the above (insert salute here)
Same here, I appreciate the Rabbi very much for his superhuman efforts here on the site. There are no words or way to show appreciation.
Tam,
Maybe instead of calling yourself ‘Tam,’ a better nickname would be ‘the one who does not know how to ask’?
For someone who looked at the column on the four sons.
Tam = Benjamin Gorlin?
The comparison invites itself.
Archimedean point.
I’m glad you found the point to hide behind, because apparently you yourself are ashamed of the wise insights dripping from you.
Still, I wish you a wonderful day and a happy life!
Too bad—if you were Gorlin, your situation would improve.
Now it seems Gorlin isn’t the bottom after all…
Apparently the hand of God was here. (Though it’s not all that likely that He would do such a thing).
I’ll send it again.