How not to answer a question TB Yoma 66

 Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurcanus also known as Eliezer Hagadol was one of the great tannaim of the first and second centuries C.E. He was one of Rabban Yokhanan ben Zakkai’s disciples and helped him establish the yeshiva in Yavneh after the destruction of the second Temple in Jerusalem. Rabban Yokhanan ben Zakkai described his retentive ability as “a plastered well that never loses a drop.” His most famous student was Rabbi Akiva. On today’s daf TB Yoma 66 he is asked a series of nine questions with some of them dealing with the scapegoat and others on a variety of topics, but evades answering them all. The Gemara explains why: “It was not because he was distancing them with words, and made irrelevant statements because he did not know the answers to these questions. Rather, Rabbi Eliezer responded in this way because he never said anything that he did not hear from the mouth of his teacher. Since he had not learned these points from his teacher, he did not answer directly, thereby indicating that he did not have a tradition with regard to these questions.” (Sefaria.org translation)

He was a severe and dominating man. The last question posed by a woman demonstrates that a Torah scholar and is not always a nice person. “The Gemara cites another question posed to Rabbi Eliezer. A wise woman asked Rabbi Eliezer: Since all bore equal responsibility for the incident of the Golden Calf, due to what factor were their deaths not equal? Some of the people were killed by the sword of Moses and the Levites, some were killed in a plague, and others were struck with an intestinal illness. He said to her: There is no wisdom in a woman except weaving with a spindle, and so it states: “And any woman who was wise-hearted spun with her hands” (Exodus 35:25). Therefore, it is unbefitting for a woman to concern herself with such questions.” (Sefaria.org translation)

Because the question is a good one, the Gemara provides two possible answers.

“With regard to this issue, it was stated that the amora’im Rav and Levi disagreed: One of them said: One who sacrificed and burned incense to the calf, which are idolatrous practices that incur capital punishment, was punished by the sword. One who embraced and kissed it, which are not forms of idolatrous worship that incur capital punishment, was subject to a divine punishment of death by a plague. One who rejoiced inwardly but performed no act was killed by the intestinal illness known as hidrokan.

“And one of them said: One who served the calf in the presence of witnesses and after a warning was punished by the sword. One who served the calf in the presence of witnesses but without warning was subject to death by a plague. One who served without witnesses and without warning was killed by hidrokan.”  (Sefaria.org translation)