Are questions purely for curiosity's sake in scope?

Question

I have seen questions posed and the comments include "why do you want to know" which leads me to believe that asking simply because of curiosity, when there is no practical use or generalizably useful knowledge is discouraged.

I have a question which is simply to scratch a trivia-based itch. It isn't a riddle (as I understand riddles) but i can't imagine that anyone else would care about it, nor will it change anyone else's religious viewpoint or life.

Is it proper to pose questions that have no purpose other than to generate factoids that I find interesting?

Answer 1

I don't think there is anything wrong with posing a question (that is otherwise on-topic, clear, not too broad, and not opinion-based) solely out of curiosity. The reason why people often ask "why do you want to know?" is, I think, because that information can often help make the question better, and lead to better answers.

For example, the reason why someone asks a question might be based on a particular assumption that person is making. Without knowing that assumption the question might seem silly; if the questioner includes the assumption then readers can more precisely figure out what the issue is and answer accordingly.

Take this question for instance:

Does Judaism consider women inferior?

Now imagine that the first two paragraphs were not included. It would be much harder to give a good answer to that question because we wouldn't know where the questioner is coming from. Since the questioner provided background to her question, we have a much better idea of what she is actually looking for, and we are thus in a better position to help her.

So in essence when people ask "why do you want to know?" it is not meant as a personal question about what your motivations are. We don't know you, and it doesn't matter what your motivations are. It's just a way of trying to help you make your question as focused and clear as possible, so that you can get the best possible answer.

Answer 2

To complement Alex's answer, I'd add:

One reason people (including me) sometimes ask for the addition of explicit motivation is that the question is that the question is of the apparently-arbitrary form "What does Judaism think of X?" where it's not inherently obvious that Judaism is likely to say anything about X. Adding motivation makes it clear that the question is not a throwaway question and is worth answering.

Another situation that can cause me to ask for such an edit is when it's not clear at first how the question is about Judaism. For example, a question about techniques to achieve some practical goal may not be obviously about Judaism, and may therefore be deemed off-topic, but may become clearly about Judaism with the addition of explicitly Judaism-borne motivation.

In the case posed here, assuming the curiosity-based question is clearly about Judaism, it seems unlikely that it would get closed, but if it really strikes people as having no clear value, it's possible people would choose to vote it down as "not useful." Of course, everyone's votes are their own to cast.

The bottom line is that, regardless of any rules articulated on Meta, if you want people to invest time in reading and trying to answer your question, to choose to vote favorably on it to give it more exposure, and to find it on Google, it's in your best interest to make it as compelling as you can to as broad a base as you can. Long-tail questions are fine, and we've got plenty of room for them, but we can't guarantee they'll get read or answered. If you get a comment asking "why do you want to know," I recommend that you take that as a helpful indication of one thing you can do to increase the question's chances of accruing favorable attention.

Answer 3

Most of my questions (especially halacha ones, because this isn't an ask-the-rabbi service) are asked out of curiosity. I've found that if I explain why I'm asking, I get better responses.

For example, sometimes I'm studying some g'mara and wonder about the outcome of something related, and people point out a different place in talmud that I wouldn't have thought to look in or known was related. So not only do I get my specific answer, but I learn about some connections among sources.

For another (recent) example, when I asked Can one rotate the chanukiyah after lighting it? my explanation included an assumption I was making (that the lights should face the street) and an answer countered that assumption. If I'd just asked about rotating without saying why, I might never have learned that relevant information.

Some questions will never have a practical outcome for me (like How does the kohein gadol's substitute wife work?), but I see a statement and naturally fall into analyzing its consequences (hey, it's just part of who I am...), and I just want to know.

I think curiosity is natural when learning torah, and we should encourage it. But the more you can say about the nature of that curiosity, the better our community can do in providing information.