Stupid Questions · First Addendum

The Sign of a Good Student: Listening 0:03

Right. When it's absorbing, it doesn't spit out. This is the sign of a good student, that he listens and doesn't spit out, you know?

Like, when I used to learn with with my teacher, I didn't ask questions.

And not only that, he was a good teacher, because he wouldn't let people ask questions. He would very much discourage questions during the actual lesson. Now, and and because it's not If you had a question about like just the פשט of what he said, so that would be one thing, but usually it was so simple that there's no way you had a question about what he said.

He's like telling you a story about like Leroy washing his car, you know what I mean? Like you definitely understand what he's saying. If you have a question, it's because you want to jump ahead and start making these connections and understand all these things.

And so then his answer to that was always, "Don't ask me all these stupid questions. He'll explain everything in the book. Just listen and you'll understand everything."

Stop Overthinking: Learn by Truly Listening 1:11

And that's how it works. And when you, you know, and that's how it works. If you want to be a good student and you really want to understand properly, you have to stop trying to understand and let yourself listen, and then you'll understand. But if you keep trying to like figure out the answer before you, then you're never open yourself up to actually understand the premises and the introductions necessary to figure out the answer.

And so even if you get told the answer to that one question, you're never going to figure out the answer, then you can come up with another question in two seconds.

It's really annoying, you know, the people who just keep asking the same questions all these not the same, but all these different questions over and over, and then they don't want to learn, you know, they don't really want to get the ability to answer it. It's like some, you know, kid comes over, "What's 1 1?" And you tell him it's two. He says, "Oh, okay." And then, "And what's 1 3?"

"That's four." "Oh, okay. And 1 2?" You know? And he just keeps coming up with more and more questions. And then he starts forgetting what you told him about because he doesn't understand, "Oh, and what was 1 1 again?"

You know? That's That's what it's like when people ask all these questions about their שאלות, and they don't want to sit down and like learn through it, you know what I mean?

They're just totally missing the point of what's going on here. And so it's an infinite, endless series of what-if questions.

Right. So even though, you know, in a way there's no such thing as stupid questions, it's a It's stupid to ask those questions, because what are you you Why would you expect to know the the answer or to even understand the answer?

Ask the Right Question: What’s the Core? 2:43

Your real question shouldn't be that. Your real question should be, "What is going on here?" You know, they'd be they're coming asking like it says here this, says here that, I don't understand, seems to contradict.

You know, it says here about מלכות this, here it says there about מלכות, and they're asking you to answer that question. It's stupid to ask that question, they should ask you what is מלכות, because they don't really understand it and that's why they have the question.

You know, but instead of that, they ask you these little things. So that's a bad student. Good students listen and try to understand as best they can,

you know. And when people would ask a question, he would just repeat the same explanation over again, because it's not going to help them to answer the question. It will only help if they they just have to get that point. If they get that point, it will answer the question on its own.

If they if they don't if they're not gaining the point, it's because they're not they're distracted by this question. So it won't help to answer the question, and then they'll find another question.

You know? You have to focus them and say all there is is this point. Either you absorb it or you don't. Not going to let you, you know.

Teaching Without Training Wheels: True Mastery 3:56

That's a good teacher that does that. Otherwise, it's like, you know, giving a person training wheels and they never learn how to ride the bike, you know what I mean? It's like you're never you're never going to really you're not helping them. You're not really teaching them.