Rabbi David Rue, with whom I’d studied Talmud and poskim (legal decisions) for more than twenty years, warned against lecturing about a great writer’s thought before having read everything he’s written. You don't want to find yourself insisting on a point in the author’s work that he later refutes. A case in point was made public several years ago at Beth Jacob Congregation, where Rabbi Riskin insisted that the Rambam had said something or other in his Mishneh Torah.

Riskin had apparently failed to reach the telling passage in his perusal of that encyclopedic work where that something was contradicted. That he failed to acknowledge the lacuna pointed out at the time by Rabbi Rue did not redound to his favor. The rules of scholarship called for an acknowledgment of having erred. But alas, rabbinic egos bridle too.

I have barely any ego left. I don’t care what people think or say about me. I know that I know very little about a few things and nothing much beyond that; that I’m fickle and prone to change my views. I would never have been elected president in the days when candidates for that office were forbidden to reveal having changed their minds on any subject at all. We are beyond that now, fortunately. Today it’s okay to put on shows of ignorance regarding vital issues in order to keep purported enemies at bay. There’s no longer a need to express an opinion that might be construed at variance with opinions earlier stated. Just don’t say anything; doing so you’ll stay this side of where flip-floppers and the thoughtful molder.