BO 5782

Do You Have Free Will or Does Gd Determine BO 5782What You Do?

For some reason at this time of year I get philosophical and there are passages in the Torah portions in the narrative of the Jewish people in Egypt that we are reading now that begs a great philosophical question: Does Gd know what we are going to do? Our tradition will say, “Yes, Gd is all-knowing.” But does that mean Gd knows what we’re going to do before we do it? Did Gd know that you would be sitting here in shul now before you were born? Yes, Gd is all-knowing. Suppose you wanted to change what Gd knew you would do, could you change it? Interesting questions, no?

There are Sages who believe that every minute detail of life is pre-ordained in the sense that Gd knows what everything that will happen. Maimonides in his famous Guide of the Perplexed (Book 3:20) teaches: The fact that Gd knows things while they are in a state of possibility, when their existence belongs to the future, does not change the nature of the possible in any way. That nature remains unchanged; and the knowledge of the realization of one of several possibilities does not yet affect that realization.

If I may translate this philosophical jargon for you: Gd’s foreknowledge of what we will do, does not mean we don’t freely choose to do it. But how can this be? If Gd knows we will sin, how can we be responsible for our sins? If He didn’t want us to sin, He should have created us differently—without our desires and failings.

Saadia Gaon (10^th century) in his book, Beliefs and Opinions (Book 2, chapter 13), teaches that the 1^st word of the Torah, Bereshit, “In the beginning,” indicates the creation of time. In the beginning of what? Time! You see, before Gd created matter (earth) there could be no time. Time is a function of matter traveling at a certain speed from point A to point B. Time is how long it takes that matter to get there. Saadia Gaon points out that this notion of the creation of time leads to a fascinating solution to the problem of free-will: “Gd created time, but having created time, Gd himself is outside of time. Gd is, l’maaleh min hazeman, ‘above time.’”

Let me give you 2 contemporary examples that will make it easier to understand. Picture a movie film which has a 3-hour story like “Gone With the Wind.” It takes 3 hours to play out that story on the screen. If I were to take a reel of film, could I look at 2 frames at one time and therefore see a sequence in time of 2 things at once? My eyesight limits me as to how many I can see at once, but I could possibly handle 4 or 5. Suppose someone had a real wide-angle vision and could see the beginning of the movie and the end when Clark Gable says, “Frankly Scarlet, I don’t give a damn.” He would then be above time as it sequences in the movie. He would see all the frames in the movie at once. And so is Gd’s view of our lives.

        My 2^nd example is a wonderful commentary on our passage in Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed found in Dara Horn’s novel, A Guide for the Perplexed. Dara Horn has recently caused quite a stir with her new book, People Love Dead Jews. I highly recommend it. Anyway, here’s what she wrote: One can imagine people walking through a valley, with an observer perched at the top of a mountain overlooking the valley below. The observer sees where the people are headed, knows when they will turn back due to an obstructed trail, knows which route will lead them to the valleys end. But the people in the valley, choosing their route without knowing what lies ahead, experience free will. All the possible paths through the valley exist, and the observer above sees where each of them lead. But this does not mean that the people in the valley do not choose their paths. Their ignorance of the eventualities ahead is the source of their free will.

Isn’t that an exquisite, compelling argument? I think it is so profound that when I 1^st read it, I knew I would have to share it with you. However, as I said, there are passages in the story of the Jewish people in Egypt that begs the question and seems to indicate otherwise. When Gd appeared to Moses in the burning bush and called upon him to lead the Jewish people out of Egypt, Moses was reluctant. Gd reassures him, telling him that he won’t be alone when he goes before Pharaoh (3:18): uvata ata v’zikney Yisrael el melech Mitzrayim (you and the elders of Israel will come before the King of Egypt). Yet we see later in the Torah that although the elders began to walk with Moses as he went to see Pharoah, as Rashi comments, one by one they chickened out and went home before Moses got there. They couldn’t bring themselves to do it.

Like these elders, no one ever knows for sure what one will do—and it seems from this story, not even Gd! Gd has restricted Himself in that regard by granting us free-will. The late Carl Sagan in explaining the difference between an astronomer and an astrologer once said: “An astronomer can predict precisely where every star will be at 11:30 on any given night, but cannot say the same for his teenage daughter. For that, you need an astrologer!”

Gd, as he sits above us in heaven looking down upon us, sees where we are headed and what obstacles we will face—like that observer atop the mountain looking down at the people in the valley below. And so, He usually knows what we will do. However, when it comes to our moral failures—like the fearful elders with Moses—even Gd doesn’t know for sure. Perhaps we might say that Gd knows what our futures will be—depending on what we choose to do. If we choose to go this way, Gd knows what will happen. If we choose to go that way, Gd also knows what will happen. But Gd has a plan for the future that will come to pass one way or the other. And whether we choose to be part of that plan is up to us.

Also, when it’s vital to Gd’s plan, sometimes Gd might suspend our free-will. For example, in today’s Torah reading Gd tells Moses (Ex. 11:9): lo yishma aleychem Paro, l’maan r’vot moftai b’eretz Mitzrayim (Pharoah will not listen to you [to let your people go] so that My wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt). In other words, Gd is telling Moses that Pharoah may relent in letting the Jewish people go when he tells him of the wholesale death that was coming. However, it was essential that all of Egypt appreciate Who is the true Gd and His power, so Gd hardened Pharoah’s heart a final time. But apart from this kind of extraordinary circumstance, what we do with and what we make of our lives is up to us.

 free will? Of course we do! Does Gd know what we will do before we do it? Of course He does! Because Gd can see us and the challenges we face before we face them. He also knows what will happen if we respond poorly to our moral and religious challenges. But when we face up to those challenges, exercising our free-will for good, although it’s not necessarily an “act of Gd,” it becomes a “Gdly” act that repairs the world and elevates our souls. And one more thing. Always remember, in the words of Bette Midler, that “Gd is watching us from a distance.” Amen!