Q&A: Turn It Over, for Everything Is in It
Turn It Over, for Everything Is in It
Question
I wanted to ask: it says in the Mishnah, Ben Bag Bag says, “Turn it over and turn it over, for everything is in it.” What does that mean? Does it literally contain everything — that is, can everything be known from the Torah? Science, medicine, and all the wisdoms of the world? And also, if a blind person who has never seen colors were to study Torah deeply, would he be able to know what the color red is?…
Answer
Absolutely not. I devoted a chapter to this in No Man Rules the Spirit. By the way, the color red is a bad example, because that isn’t knowledge.
Of course, I have no way to prove that all information is not somehow embedded in the Torah, but nobody else can show that it is, either.
That also probably wasn’t the original intent. Maybe the meaning is everything needed for the service of God, or something like that.
The invention that everything is found in the Torah has no basis whatsoever. It’s a ridiculous example that somehow penetrated our discourse as if it were a principle of faith.
You have to read the saying in full:
Ben Bag Bag says: “Turn it over and turn it over, for everything is in it; and look into it, and grow old and worn in it, and do not move away from it, for you have no better trait than it.”
That is, the intent is character refinement, not scientific knowledge.