I’ve held off posting on this thread for a while, but I’d like to add my two cents, considerng that I am one of those lsited in the first post on the permisability of reading my posts or of me posintg in this site. I’ll ask my own question, what is a permissable question to be asked in a beis midrash? Is there any field of inquiry which is taboo to Torah learning?
Judaism is G-d’s gift and guide to the world because the anwer to that question is a resounding “NO!!!” There is nothing that cannot be raised in the context of honest Torah inquiry. There is no field of intelelctual endeavor to be avoided in the Beth Midrash. I forget the pariculars of the story, but I recall that when the students of a certain Amora were caught spying on the most intimate of their rebbe’s acts, they unashamedly retorted “torah hi ul’lelilmod ani tzarich.” And the dsicussion ended there. The lesson? G-d loves honest inquiry. Nothing is so sacred that it is exempt from dissection and analysis. Either the injunction of “Haphoch bo v’haphoch bo d’kula bo” is a mantra for life, or Judaism is nothing.
Permit me another question. What is the function of this site? Is it merely to reinforce the pre-approved assumptions people bring with them, or is it to serve a higher purpose? Are people ehre interested in learning something new, or in just rehashing the stale and well known? “Harbei lamad’ti. . .U’mtalmidai yoter m’kulam.” How can it be that a sage learns the most from his students? The answer is because the students are innocent, naive perhaps. They do not make the same assumptions about the “Torah way” or about world their teacher does. They therefore offer a fresh, perhaps unexamiend perspective on the subject matter at hand. I prouldy stand before all of you as your “student.” At the same time I humbly thank and beseech you for the opportunity to remain mine.