All of us carry around a large stash of things we know. And an even larger stash of things we don’t know and know we don’t know. Few of us for instance are likely to spend much time discussing the implications of the General Theory of Relativity because we have only the dimmest conception of what it is even if we know that such a thing exists.
As long as we know that we don’t know something we are in relatively safe territory. The problems start when we do not know that we do not know. A recent case in point comes from the life of your humble scribe.
I have long known that the annual convention of AgudathIsraelofAmericatakes place on Thanksgiving weekend. Certainly that was the case every time I attended the convention in the past. My knowledge was not only based on experience but logic as well: It makes sense to hold the convention over a four-day weekend when people are off from their jobs.
So when I realized that the Thanksgiving date would allow me to attend the convention this year in Stamford Connecticut by merely extending by a few days a long-scheduled trip to speak in the Five Towns the preceding Shabbos I quickly called Agudath Israel to find out whether they would be interested in my singing for my supper. They were and found three slots for me including one on Leil Shabbos.
