ואמר רב אחא בר יעקב עוד רקיע אחד יש למעלה מראשי החיות דכתיב (יחזקאל א, כב) ודמות על ראשי החיה רקיע כעין הקרח הנורא עד כאן יש לך רשות לדבר מכאן ואילך אין לך רשות לדבר שכן כתוב בספר בן סירא (בן סירא ג, יט-כ) במופלא ממך אל תדרוש ובמכוסה ממך אל תחקור במה שהורשית התבונן אין לך עסק בנסתרות. תניא, אמר רבן יוחנן בן זכאי: מה תשובה השיבתו בת קול לאותו רשע בשעה שאמר ״אעלה על במתי עב אדמה לעליון״ — יצתה בת קול ואמרה לו: רשע בן רשע, בן בנו של נמרוד הרשע, שהמריד כל העולם כולו עליו במלכותו
חגיגה יג א
I count roughly 5 or 6 reasons why it is not appropriate to learn about what happened before creation:
- It is forbidden/אין לך רשות לדבר/אל תדרוש
- It is secret/נסתרות
- It is covered and concealed/מופלא/מכוסה
- It is dangerous (see story of Nimrod)
- It is "beyond" and "above" our understanding/עוד רקיע אחד יש למעלה מראשי החיות
- It is none of our business/אין לך עסק
I am not disputing these claims and this is what I've been told all my learning life but I just want to understand them better - I would like to know why, even if not what, that's all. I've never heard a good answer to that (except a couple of things in chassidus on a couple of the points, but I'd like to widen my net)
Eg.
- Why is it forbidden? Is there anything I can understand to help me understand what is wrong with it? It seems like such a fair, natural, innocent question.
- What is secret about it? I.e. what type of secret is it? Without revealing the secret, do we know anything about what makes it a "secret" topic?
- What does "concealed" even mean here?
- What is the danger? Death? Why? What causes death to those asking this natural question?
- What makes it beyond our understanding? We study a lot of esoteric mathematics and philosophy, that is "beyond our understanding" and do very well, like multi-dimensional mathematics, quantum physics etc. What makes this different?
- What about it makes it none of our business? As per the main theme of my question: it seems like such a fair and natural thing to be curious about, perhaps even be considered necessary for someone to know what happened before they came on the scene. It seems very much our business, and therefore I would like to know why it isn't!