B'shert? Free Will or Destiny?

(3) Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still well?” But his brothers could not answer him, so dumfounded were they on account of him. (4) Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come forward to me.” And when they came forward, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, he whom you sold into Egypt. (5) Now, do not be distressed or reproach yourselves because you sold me hither; it was to save life that God sent me ahead of you. (6) It is now two years that there has been famine in the land, and there are still five years to come in which there shall be no yield from tilling. (7) God has sent me ahead of you to ensure your survival on earth, and to save your lives in an extraordinary deliverance. (8) So, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his household, and ruler over the whole land of Egypt.

(19) I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day: I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life—if you and your offspring would live—(20) by loving the LORD your God, heeding His commands, and holding fast to Him. For thereby you shall have life and shall long endure upon the soil that the LORD swore to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them.

(1) Free will is granted to all people: If one wanted to turn oneself to a good path and to be righteous he has free will, and if one wanted to turn oneself to an evil path and be wicked he has free will, as it is written in the Torah, Behold, the man is become like one of us, to know good and evil (Genesis 3:22), that is, this species of human is unique in the world and there is no other species like it in this matter, that it of its own initiative and will and thought knows Good and Evil and will do whatever it pleases, and there is no one to prevent its hand from doing Good or Evil, and since that is so Lest he send his hand (Gen. 3:22).

(2) Do not let this thing that the simpletons of the Nations of the World and most of the fools of Israel say cross your mind, that the Holy Blessed One decrees for a person to be righteous or wicked from the beginning of his creation. The matter is not so; rather, every person is capable of being righteous like Moses our Teacher or wicked like [King] Jeroboam, wise or foolish, compassionate or cruel, stingy or wasteful, and so on for all of the attributes. And there is no one that forces him or decrees for him, nor anyone who pulls him toward one of the two paths; rather, that person, of his own will and awareness, leans toward whichever path he wants, as Jeremiah said, Does not Good and Evil come out of the mouth of the Most High? (Lamentations 3:38). And since that is how it is, it seems that this sinner injures himself. Therefore it is appropriate for him to cry and wail over his sins and over what he did to his soul and how he caused evil to it, as is written afterward, How can a living man complain etc. (Lamentations 3:39). And he returns to say, since we have free will, and by our own awareness we did all of the evil, it is appropriate for us to return in teshuvah and abandon our wickedness, since we now have free will, as is written afterward, Let us search and try our ways, and return [to the Lord] (Lamentations 3:40).

(3) And this is a major principle, and it is a pillar of the Torah and the Mitzvah, as it says, See, I have set before you this day life and good, and death and evil (Deuteronomy 30:15), and it is written, Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse (Deuteronomy 11:26), which is to say that you have free will, and whatever a person wants to do, of all the deeds of humanity, he can do, whether good or bad. And based on this concept it says, Oh that they had such a heart as this [always, to revere Me, and keep all My commandments] (Deuteronomy 5:26), which is to say that the Creator neither forces humans nor decrees for them to do Good or Evil; everything is turned over to them.

(4) If God would decree for a person to be righteous or wicked, or if something existed in a person’s nature that would pull him to a certain path, or to a certain opinion, or to a certain characteristic, or to a certain action, like the stupid astrologers make up, how could God command us through the Prophets, “Do this and don’t do that,” “Improve your ways and do not follow your wickedness,” when from the beginning of his creation it was already decreed for him, or his nature pulls him toward something that he can not escape? And what place would there be for the entire Torah? And according to what justice and what law could God punish the wicked or reward the tzaddik, Will the Judge of all the earth not do justice (Genesis 18:25)? But do not wonder and ask, how is it that a person can do whatever he wants and all of his deeds are given over to him, and could a person do anything in the world against his Creator’s will and desire, when the verse says, Whatever the LORD desires, He has done in Heaven and on Earth (Psalm 135:6)? Know that everything is done according to God’s desire, even though our actions are given over to us. How is that? Just as the Creator desires that Fire and Air rise above while Water and Earth go down below and the wheel turns in a circle, and so too all of the other creations in the world follow their laws that God desired for them, so also God desired that a person should have free will and everything be given over to him, and that there should be no one to force or pull, but he of his own will and awareness – which God has given him – should do whatever a person can do. Therefore we judge a person according to his actions: if he did Good we do well by him, and if he did Evil we do poorly by him, as the Prophet said, This is from your own doing (Malakhi 1:9), they have chosen their own ways (Isaiah 66:3). And on this subject [King] Solomon said, Rejoice, young man, in your youth... but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment (Ecclesiastes 11:9), which is to say: know that you have the power to act and in the future you will be called to judgment.

(5) Lest you ask: Doesn’t the Holy Blessed One know everything that will happen before it happens, that this person will be righteous or wicked, or does God not know? If God knows that he will be righteous, it is impossible for him not to be righteous! And if you say that God knows he will be righteous and it is possible for him to be wicked, then God does not know the matter with clarity! Know that the answer to this question, The measure of it is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea (Job 11:9), and several great principles and lofty mountains depend on it, but you must know and understand this matter that I will say. We have already explained in the second chapter of Laws of the Foundations of Torah that the Holy Blessed One does not know based on separate knowledge, like humans who are distinct from their knowledge; rather, God (may God’s name be exalted) and God’s knowledge are one. And a person’s intellect is not able to comprehend this matter with clarity; just as a person lacks the power to comprehend and discover the Creator’s Truth, as it says, For a human shall not see Me and live (Exodus 33:20), a person lacks the power to comprehend and discover the Creator’s Knowledge, as the Prophet said, For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways (Isaiah 55:8). And since it is thus, we do not have the power to know how it is that the Holy Blessed One knows all the creations and all the actions. But know without a doubt that a person’s actions are in his hands, and the Holy Blessed One does not pull him or decree for him to do so. And this is not only known from acceptance of the religion, but through clear proofs from philosophy. And therefore it says in prophecy that a person is judged on his actions such as they are, whether Good or Evil, and this is the principle upon which all words of prophecy depend.

(3) But it is possible that a person would commit a grave sin or many sins so that judgment is rendered before the True Judge to punish this sinner on account of these sins committed through [the sinner’s] awareness and intention – such that teshuvah is prevented and we do not allow this person to return from their evil, so that they will die and be lost in the sins they committed. This is what the Holy Blessed One said through Isaiah: Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they, seeing with their eyes, and hearing with their ears, and understanding with their heart, do teshuvah, and receive healing (Isaiah 6:10). Similarly, They mocked the messengers of God, and despised God’s words, and scoffed at God’s prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against God’s people such that there was no remedy (2 Chronicles 36:16), meaning: they sinned intentionally and eagerly transgressed until they deserved to be denied teshuvah, which is the “remedy.” Therefore it is written in the Torah: I will harden Pharaoh’s heart (Ex. 14:4) – since he initially sinned of his own initiative and abused Israel, who were living in his land, as it says, Come, let us deal cleverly with them (Ex. 1:10), judgment was rendered to deny [Pharaoh] teshuvah until [God] punished him – therefore the Holy Blessed One hardened [Pharaoh’s] heart. So why did [God] send Moses with the message: “Release [the Israelites], and do teshuvah,” when the Holy Blessed One had already said [to Pharaoh], “You won’t release [the Israelites],” as it says, But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the LORD God (Ex. 9:30), ‪But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth (Ex. 9:16)? In order to inform humanity that when the Holy Blessed One denies teshuvah to a sinner, [the sinner] can not repent – [rather] the sinner will die in the wickedness that [the sinner] initially committed intentionally. So it was for Sihon – because of his sins he deserved to be denied teshuvah, as it says, the Lord your God hardened his spirit and strengthened his heart (Deut. 2:30); and so it was for the Canaanites – because of their abominations, they were denied teshuvah to the point where they waged war against Israel, as it says, For it was the Lord’s doing to harden their hearts, so they would come against Israel in battle and be utterly destroyed (Joshua 11:20); and so it was with Israel in the days of Elijah – because they eagerly transgressed, those who eagerly transgressed were denied teshuvah, as it says, [Answer me, Lord, answer me, so that this people will know that You, LORD, are God,] for You turned their heart backward (1 Kings 18:37), that is, You denied them teshuvah. So you must conclude: God did not decree for Pharaoh to abuse Israel, nor for Sihon to sin in his land, nor for the Canaanites to commit abominations, nor for Israel to commit idolatry – rather, all of them sinned of their own initiative and all of them deserved to be denied teshuvah.

(Rabbi Akiva says) Everything is foreseen, and freewill is given,