The Gemara seems to generalize here and say that silence is more fitting than speech.
My questions are:
1. If the chachomim were silent they would never have said the above!
2. Pirkei Avos commends questions and says that a "bayshan" will never know.
3. I don't understand the raayeh the Gem. brings from Mishlei. "evil machrish chochom yechoshev". If it simply means that a fool is considered wise before he opens his mouth; so what? It just means that people don't yet realize that he's a fool. Keeping silent doesn't make him "oys" fool; he's the same fool that he was!
4. If "evil" means 'skeptic' and "machrish" means that someone was able to 'silence' him and the silencer is considered a "chochom" for being able to do so. Then again what is the raayeh from the posuk?
5. The Tzlach's question that 'they would lose out by keeping silent as well' and his answer that they lose out more by speaking is also hard to understand. Because in reality they lose out more only because the didn't speak ENOUGH! If they would have spoken more and stipulated how long they would wait for the seeker and at what time the finder would actually shecht if he found it; there would be no sofek of who shected first. And this sofek that cause the whole problem would never have happened.
Respectfully yours,
Alex Lebovits
1&2 Certainly this statement is not meant to include Divrei Chachma u'Musar, only Divrei Reshus and Sichas Chulin. See Rambam Pirush ha'Mishnah Avos (1:16).
3&4 The previous Pasuk in Mishlei praises a wise person for his tendency not to voice his opinion at every available opportunity, but rather to wait for a judicious time in which to pronounce his views. Our Pasuk proceeds to advise those not so fortunate as to be endowed with even average levels of wisdom, that their silence will not be viewed by others as a lack of understanding, rather they will be envisaged as acting wisely by withholding counsel, as this is the tendency of a wise person, as above, and in so doing enabling themselves to accumulate wisdom and reap its benefits (Rabeinu Yona in Mishlei). Needless to say there are other explanations on this intriguing verse.
5 Perhaps it is asking too much for people to cover every eventuality. We cannot expect to foresee the future. I would suggest that the Gemara is only taking the opportunity to teach us an important lesson and that the Mashal the Gemara chose to base it on is less important than the Nimshal and does not need to be taken too literally.
Dov Freedman