Knowledge is...___________

Ignorance is Bliss

Knowledge is Power

So which is it? Are we to sacrifice power for bliss? Can you not be blissfully powerful? We live in the information age. News travels at lightning speeds. With the Internet never too far away..often in the palm of our hands..we can just google it..ask cha cha..We can get so much information so fast. People are being educated today like never before. College numbers are rising as more and more people are going back to school, getting degrees..expanding their horizons..In short we are learning more and being exposed to more information than any other time in history.

Last night I was learning in the Nefesh Shimshon, that Hashem's knowledge cannot be compared to ours. If we knew the past, present and future then it would affect free choice. Yet, Hashem's "knowledge" is not limited in that sense and exists on a completely different plane. He knows what i will decide in 5 minutes but that knowledge does not determine what it is that I will be doing. I was speaking to a friend last night, and at some point she said "G-d knows" and I replied in turn that yes, He does know ..He knows EVERYTHING.  I then commented ..wouldn't it be cool to know everything? Discussion ensued. 

With knowledge comes responsibility. If you know that someone is suffering you are not allowed to simply stand by and pretend like you don't know it exists. You, the carrier of the knowledge..must act upon what you know and make real changes. If you are aware of flaws in your character...you cannot ignore them...you need to make real changes ( as a completely BTW..this is why people often choose to stay away from self-introspection and self knowledge..they prefer not to know) 

If you were to know EVERYTHING that would be an awesome responsibility that no human can carry. We cannot go on living our lives if we knew everything there was to know all the time. You could not live. Try indulging in a latte from Starbucks if you were acutely aware of the starvation in third world countries. Yes, we have to be sensitive to the plight of others and if we are aware personally of problems that are within our power to change then we must do so. 

Knowledge is a good thing! I am all for education and proper grammar usage. I cringe when people say " I'm doing good" good is an adjective not an adverb! I always make a point of saying " I'm doing well, thank you."But I digress. Yes, we should learn, and No we should not intentionally stay in the dark..Yes, we should make ourselves aware of the problems that are ever prevalent in this world. No, we should not overwhelm our selves with the impossible..

So, now that I've said my peace..What is your take? Would you want to know everything? Would you prefer to stay in the dark sometimes? What kind of things intrigue you and want to make you probe further..and what things make you say " that's enough know, i really don't wanna hear about it anymore"?