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Why does the Mishna define a wise person as one who learns from everybody, while the Talmud (תלמוד) tells Alexander the Great that wisdom means seeing consequences? The shiur distinguishes between secular wisdom (mastering material and seeing implications) and Torah (תורה) wisdom (learning from multiple teachers whose interpretations themselves become Torah).
The shiur explores a fundamental question arising from comparing two Talmudic sources on wisdom. In Avos 4, Ben Zoma defines a wise person as one who learns from everybody, while in Masechet Tamid, when Alexander the Great asks the rabbis about wisdom, they answer that a wise person is one who sees consequences and implications (haroeh es hanolad). Rabbi Zweig resolves this apparent contradiction by proposing that there are two distinct types of wisdom: secular wisdom and Torah (תורה) wisdom. Secular wisdom, exemplified by the answer given to Alexander the Great, involves mastering a body of material and understanding its consequences and implications. This is the wisdom of sciences like mathematics and physics, where one learns primarily from texts and applies logical reasoning to see future outcomes.
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Avos 4
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