“Even if we are all wise men, all understanding people, and we all know the Torah — we have been given a mitzva (religious commandment) to tell about the redemption from Egypt.”
The above is a well-known passage from the ‘Hagadda of Pesach’ – the traditional text read and spoken by millions of Jews every Passover. Still there may be a hidden logical flaw in that innocent statement.
Note that if (a) We all know the Torah; and (b) It is a religious commandment to tell something, then the obvious conclusion is: (c) We all know it is a religious commandment to tell that thing. Therefore, a subset of the original message is:
“Even if we all know we have been given a mitzva to tell about the redemption from Egypt — we must tell about the redemption from Egypt.”
Hence there are activities X for which even if we all know X is a “mitzvah”, we must carry out X.
As we know the meaning of the words “even if”, one must conclude there are activities which we know are “mitzvah” but shouldn’t necessarily be carried out…