The Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 187 preserves a terse but powerful warning about the danger of asking the wrong questions — or more precisely, about knowing when to stop asking.
God delivers a sharp rebuke to someone who has overstepped: "Turn yourself back from what you asked, and do not continue in this matter." The divine response is not an answer. It is a door slammed shut. Some questions, the midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) implies, are not meant to be pursued further.
To reinforce the point, the text cites a verse from Proverbs: "Who watches his mouth and his tongue, keeps his soul from trouble" (Proverbs 21:23). The Hebrew word shomer — "watches" or "guards" — appears twice in the verse, once for the mouth and once for the tongue. The rabbis read this doubling as deliberate: guarding speech requires constant vigilance on multiple fronts.
In rabbinic literature, this kind of teaching often appears in the context of mystical speculation. The Talmud famously warns that four sages entered the Pardes — the orchard of esoteric knowledge — and only Rabbi Akiva emerged unharmed. The others went mad, died, or lost their faith. The lesson is consistent: there are boundaries to inquiry that even the righteous must respect.
This passage reminds us that wisdom in Jewish tradition is not just about seeking knowledge. It is equally about knowing when silence is the holier path.