"Everything is foreseen, yet free will is given. The world is judged
with
goodness, and all is according to the majority of deeds."
Last week we began discussing the concept of man's free will -- as
referenced in our Mishna's second statement. We asked to what extent is man
truly granted free will. Don't the Sages teach us that G-d controls the
world and every event which occurs therein -- down to the smallest detail
("short of catching cold" -- as we discussed last week)? If so, man's free
will would have to be severely restricted. He can't really do anything not
included in the Divine plan. Thus, if person #1 wants to harm person #2,
theoretically he should not be able to do so without Divine sanction.
And this created a dilemma for us. We don't need to search very far and
wide to see a world in which man is constantly perpetrating terrible evils
one upon the other, ranging from suppertime telemarketers to the
Holocaust. Now if G-d is truly behind such behavior -- or at least is
acquiescing to it -- we are left with a very frightful image of our G-d.
Where is the kindly,loving, all-merciful Creator Judaism has preached to
the world, ever since Abraham? Conversely, say we remove G-d from the
picture: G-d is *not* behind all the evils of the world. They are all the
fault of man, who is grossly and blatantly abusing his free will. (This
runs contrary to many statements of the Sages on the matter, but for
argument's sake...) If so, a very dark and evil image of the world
emerges. The world has run amok; it has gone out of control -- even the
control of the G-d who has created it. And G-d is perhaps watching
helplessly as man destroys the world beneath Him. Man, misusing his free
will, is undermining all the wonderful plans G-d had for His universe,
perhaps even making the world unworthy of the era of Messiah which G-d has
so openly promised.
And finally, if G-d *is* in control all along, practically speaking how
does He restrict man's free will? Can't I harm or kill my fellow if I so
choose? The world is not as afraid of nuclear holocaust as we were 20
years ago, but what's to stop man from destroying the world? And even
short of that, how is it possible that G-d is orchestrating the course of
history, bringing the world to its fruition, if man is a very unwilling
accomplice to the Divine scheme? Who is directing the drama of world
history? G-d may have written the script, but who's to say man will follow
it?
Before I begin to address this, I should state that there are drastically
different approaches to this even among the classical commentators. Where
do we draw the line? To what extent is man granted free will? Where does G-
d's providential control begin? And how do these seemingly-contradictory
axioms coexist? Even before we answer, we must accept that there *is* no
simple and unequivocal response -- even among the greatest Jewish
thinkers. There are approaches and theses -- and below I present what I
feel is most accepted -- but there is simply no unquestionable magic
bullet. For better or worse, some of the deepest and most nagging issues
of Jewish theology must simply be approached with the recognition that
they may well be beyond our ability to fully comprehend. It certainly
behooves us to make the effort, but we may simply have to accept that it
is not for us to fully know the ways of an unknowable G-d.
That said, let me pose our dilemma once more, taking a more specialized
instance. Say Joe wakes up one day and decides to kill Bob. Joe takes his
gun, walks up to Bob and shoots him dead. Joe exercised his free will. A
man who may have otherwise lived another 50 years has just died. Where was
G-d? If we believe that everything that occurs in this world is a part of
G-d's plan, does this imply Bob would have had a heart attack and died
just then anyway? And again, if not, did not Joe just defy G-d's will?
This question, tragically, was posed in a non-hypothetical situation by a
thinker of no lesser stature than Elie Wiesel. In _Night_ he describes a
particularly gruesome hanging in his concentration camp -- of two adults
along with an innocent young boy with angelic face. Unlike the adults, the
boy was too light to be strangled instantly by his own weight. The inmates
filed past while the boy struggled agonizingly between life and death for
over half an hour. Wiesel writes that behind him he heard a man ask: "Where
is G-d? Where is He?" He heard a voice within him answer: "Where is He?
Here He is -- He is hanging here on this gallows...."
Far be it from us to judge a man who saw and suffered so much. The human
element of tragedy and holocaust, both personal and national, can never be
properly addressed in the written word. But we must attempt to offer at
least some words of explanation, if only on an intellectual level.
Let us return to our hypothetical situation. The premise of practically all
traditional Jewish thinkers is that nothing in this world occurs outside of
G-d's purview. G-d does not direct the evil man perpetrates on his fellow -
-
that is man's doing and his responsibility -- and for it he alone will be
held accountable. Yet G-d would not have allowed it to be successful if it
were against His wishes. Thus, if G-d wants Bob alive, Joe will not be able
to kill him. How so? G-d will see to it that Joe's plans are not
successful. The gun will not fire, Bob will miss his bus, Joe will
oversleep etc. G-d has an infinite number of natural means at His disposal
to control the outcome of events. In the most extreme case -- if all
natural means fail --G-d may even perform an open miracle to save the
victim.
(A number of years ago I read the story of a great rabbi who was fleeing a
mugger. The assailant shot him point-blank from a few feet away. The rabbi
kept running, only to discover later that the bullet had lodged itself in
his coat and went no further. He insisted on wearing that same coat with
the bullet hole for years to come, long after it wore out, as a reminder
of the great kindness G-d had performed for him.)
Let's say, however, Joe does kill Bob. This means that G-d acquiesced to
the murder. G-d must have determined that on some level Bob "deserved" to
die.And this of course raises two important questions. First, can we
really say every innocent bystander, every child who dies violently
deserved his or her fate? Second, if Joe kills Bob, it certainly seems
that he snuffed out a life which would have continued for many more years.
Are we forced to say the victim would have died just then anyway? And if
not, hasn't Joe just changed the course of G-d's world -- killing someone
who would otherwise have continued living?
The first question I will deal with only very briefly. Did Bob really
deserve to die? On one level we must say yes. There are a number of
approaches to this issue, each valid in its own context. Yet here I feel we
must accept that G-d's justice is not something truly understandable to
man. Why every unfortunate victim "deserved" it -- what is the answer to
Wiesel's "Where is G-d?" -- is clearly beyond our ability to discern. And
so, I will only suggest a few of the basic approaches, and we will have to
content ourselves with that.
One answer is that G-d's justice is exceedingly strict. We all carry some
degree of guilt, and G-d alone knows the proper compensation for each
wicked deed. Even the most worthy among us might well have brought upon
himself sufficient guilt to be deserving of death. Second, it's possible
the individual did not deserve death himself, but he suffered as an
atonement for his generation. (I realize people view this as a Christian
concept, but it is actually quite Jewish (see for example Ezekiel 4 and
Talmud Sanhedrin 39a) -- although we certainly believe the Christians blew
it way out of proportion.) Third, the concept of reincarnation -- though
barely hinted in the Talmud (to my knowledge) -- is well-established in
kabbalistic sources. Perhaps even a child deserved death as atonement for
sins of a past life. Fourth, the Sages state that G-d may take away small
children from this world as a punishment to the parents. Finally, there
are times -- and this supposedly is rare -- in which G-d has no way of
saving a victim from his assailant via natural means. And performing an
open miracle is not viable because it would reveal G-d's Presence too
openly in this world -- something man is hardly prepared for. Thus, to
preserve G-d's concealment, G-d at times must allow unfortunate victims to
perish. There is supposedly a special place reserved in the World to Come
for innocents who are sacrificed for such.
We now turn to our second question. If G-d truly wanted Bob to die, would
he really have died then anyway without Joe's bullet? And if not, didn't
Joe just terminate a life which surely would have continued?
The answer is that the Torah describes G-d as "slow to anger" (Exodus
34:6). He does not punish a person as soon as he sins. As above, we must
assume Bob bears some guilt on the Divine scales. But he, as all mankind,
is given the opportunity to repent. *G-d* would have granted Bob more
years --perhaps a lifetime -- in the hope he will make expiation before
his death. But let's say Joe has it in for Bob. By the laws of nature
Bob's death is inevitable. The only thing that would save Bob is G-
d's "going out of His way," so to speak, to save him -- whether through
hidden providence or open intervention. Would G-d do such -- impinging on
Joe's free will -- to save a man really deserving of death -- only
preserved to begin with through the good graces of a patient G-d? Perhaps
not.
Well, at this point we have presented the beginnings of an approach. Have
we answered satisfactorily? Can we really feel good and content about the
many evils we see in this world, the suffering of innocents, accidental
murders which seem so avoidable? Have we really answered the "Where is G-
d" of Elie Wiesel? We have only just begun to make sense of a senseless
world. And perhaps this week you will walk away disappointed. We made many
valid points, but can we even pretend we have a workable and soul-
satisfying theory of "how G-d runs the world?" Perhaps we've even raised
more questions than we were able to answer.
Yet there is something of great importance I feel we did accomplish today.
We were not afraid to ask. And this is one of the great lessons of Judaism
and of Pirkei Avos in particular. The Sages were never afraid to raise such
issues, even if they could not fully fathom the responses. For G-d expects
us, as thinking human beings, to be plagued by such issues. No question is
too challenging -- or too stupid -- to be raised. And if we sincerely seek
G-d, we may not become philosophers who foolishly believe they can answer
all, but we can be certain G-d will be patiently awaiting us, slowly
guiding us towards the Truth.
There is a midrash which compares G-d's control of this world to a rider on
a horse. The horse may decide precisely how to place its foot down, but the
direction and the route is wholly in the rider's hands. We only hope and
pray that G-d holds steady onto His course, and that the day will soon be
when all wrongs are righted and all questions answered.
Text Copyright © 2004 by Rabbi Dovid Rosenfeld and Torah.org.
