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On Spiritual Determinism

שו”תCategory: faithOn Spiritual Determinism
asked 8 years ago

Hello Rabbi, I read your book “Sciences of Freedom,” and did not find an answer to my perception in it (not complaining, this is not a common perception). I would appreciate a response and perhaps the Rabbi will enlighten me regarding the failures/dishonesty in this perception (I am less skilled in analyzing concepts and logic).
In my opinion, when God created the world, He created physical laws, in which, as the rabbi proved in his book, there is no room to “push” the freedom of will. He also established spiritual laws, to which the entire spiritual side of the world (including the human spirit) is subject. The human consciousness/spirit is also subject to laws that can be called “meta-psychological” and they dictate the human mind.
So where does freedom of will come in? This is a definitional question, the Sages have already stated, “You have no free son except one who engages in Torah.” “Freedom” is a value given to an action (like the value of “truth” to an argument). An action that “flows” with the divine will is a “free” action, and an action that contradicts it is “slavery.”
This is how I understand Rihal in “The servants of time are servants of slaves, the servant of God alone is free.” This is not about an idea, but rather a conceptual definition.
Thank you very much and all the best…


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מיכי Staff answered 8 years ago
Hello. All of this is explained in my book. It doesn’t fit anywhere in your picture. Determinism does not allow for free will, even if it is non-physical determinism. Ultimately, an electron has to start moving in order to perform a human action. The question is who moves it? On the contrary, your picture is even more deterministic than usual, since according to you, even if we assume the existence of a spirit and a spiritual dimension in humans, we are still bound by pre-dictated laws.

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