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In the spirit of Talmud Bavli Chullin 139b.

The Talmud assumes that great future events are hinted to in the Torah. Well in that case... Mi Yodeya min HaTorah minayin (where is Mi Yodeya hinted at in the Torah)?


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So no Nach?​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ –  Double AA Feb 19 '13 at 21:49
@DoubleAA, Nope. Otherwise the answer to the gemara's questions would be pretty trivial for Esther, Haman, etc. –  jake Feb 19 '13 at 22:17
But it makes it quite challenging for Mi Yodeya. –  Double AA Feb 19 '13 at 22:25
@DoubleAA לפום צערא אגרא –  Isaac Moses Feb 19 '13 at 22:26

4 Answers 4

The continuation of that gemara (Chullin 139c) notes that the hint to Mi Yodeya is in Devarim 21:1 which states:

לא נודע מי הכהו‏
It is not known who hit him

because Mi Yodeya is characterized by the ability to hit people without being known.

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I didn't realize they used to print on triangular folios! –  Charles Koppelman Feb 19 '13 at 22:58
@CharlesKoppelman Only for Purim! –  Double AA Feb 19 '13 at 23:03
♫ Mein blat, der hat drei eiken / drei eiken hat mein blat ♫ –  Charles Koppelman Feb 19 '13 at 23:06

God had Moshe gather an assembly of elders to receive spill-over prophecy and become adjuct prophets. Two men who weren't amongst the assembly received the prophecy where they were. When Moshe's assistant, Yehoshua heard about this, he suggested that his master incarcerate these two for their disrespect.

Num 11:29:

... וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹ מֹשֶׁה, הַמְקַנֵּא אַתָּה לִי; וּמ.י. יִתֵּן כָּל-עַם יְהוָה\נְבִיאִים

And Moshe said to him, "You're worried about me? [One day] M.Y. will provide for an entire nation of people [who think that they are either] God [or] prophets [as they answer Torah questions in public without providing sources other than their own minds].

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Mi Yodeya is hinted to in Sh'mos 10:8: "מי ומי ההלכים". The Ramban (ad loc.) writes that Pharaoh used this phrase as a reference to only the elite few "leaders, sages, and officers - men who were mentioned by name."

In a similar vein, the Ba'al HaTurim notes that the gematria of "מי ומי ההלכים" equals that of "כלב ובן נון", the great sages who knew how to respond to the rest of the spies, and who therefore survived the journey to the Land of Canaan (ad loc.; cf. B'midbar 14:30):

אמר פרעה למשה מה אתם מבקשים כל כך ללכת כי כולם ימותו במדבר חוץ מיהושע וכלב; מי ומי ההלכים בגימטריא כלב ובן נון

The gemara (T'murah 16a) asks: Kaleiv, in fact, was the son of Chetzron, so why was he called כלב בן יפונה? One talmudic manuscript (MS Sambatyon Or. 140) answers that the gematria of the root .י.פ.נ equals the gematria of מי יודע - Kaleiv was one of the elite few who knew the answers to the questions people sought (cf. Rashbam, B'midbar 13:30 "'And Kaleiv silenced the people': With his wisdom").

On a daily basis, contributors to Mi Yodeya astound and amaze with their wisdom.

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Your manuscript number is the gematria of Mi Yodeya :) –  Double AA Feb 20 '13 at 6:10
@DoubleAA Yup, well, those Sambatyon River folk have an idiosyncratic classification for manuscripts. –  Fred Feb 20 '13 at 6:22

Shemos 11:2:

וְיִשְׁאֲלוּ אִישׁ מֵאֵת רֵעֵהוּ וְאִשָּׁה מֵאֵת רְעוּתָהּ

And a man should ask from his friend and a woman from her friend.

If Mosheh was there, why were they asking each other? At that point, Mosheh was still judging everyone by himself (18:15-16). Why were they asking each other?

It must be a reference to a good website for asking questions about Jewish life and learning and getting crowd-sourced answers.

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