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Hello Rabbi

שו”תCategory: philosophyHello Rabbi
asked 5 years ago

Hello Rabbi, I am reading the second book in the trilogy (which is well and clearly written), and I did not understand why it is so simple for you that the contradiction between God’s knowledge and human actions is on the logical plane and not on the practical plane, which is in a different time space and so on. It is true that it is not understood because we do not live in the same time space, but this is not a logical contradiction.


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מיכי Staff answered 5 years ago
Mainly because of the Newcomb paradox. But even beyond that, the fact that he is beyond time doesn’t change anything. That explains how he gets the information before the act is committed. It doesn’t explain how when he has the information in advance (and he can also pass it on to humans) I still have free choice. These are two different questions, although many confuse them.

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גל replied 5 years ago

And why can't it be said that He knows you and your natural inclinations so well that He knows what you will do? For example, as He says about Aaron who will see Moses and be glad in his heart? Or about Pharaoh who will refuse to let his people go?

מיכי replied 5 years ago

Because if familiarity is enough to predict what I will do, that means the current data is beyond comprehension. You've got determinism.

גל replied 5 years ago

Um... Okay. Incidentally, the Ramban is mentioned several times in the chapter, that everything is a miracle, etc. There is another Ramban at the end of Shaar HaGmul who quotes the words of the Ramban, from which it emerges that almost nothing is without divine intervention, I am copying the passage for you:

And I further warn anyone who wants to be one of those about whom it is said, "The righteous in his faith shall live," and does not wish to be counted among those about whom it is said, "Children who do not believe in them," not to try to investigate this matter from the books and most of those who speak on this matter, and to understand and know that this doubt is not very great in the affairs of men (in my opinion) and is not needed like most matters that are difficult to study at the beginning. And the great Rabbi, may God bless him, has already eliminated much of this research in his arguments in chapter twelve of the book "The Guide of the Perplexed." May God bless him, may God bless him, that it will come to the hearts of the multitude that the evils of the world outweigh the good, and when you compare the comforts and pleasures of man during his rest with the worries and severe pains And the injuries, illnesses, and obstacles, will show them that man exists to his own detriment, and he will explain that most of the evils in human beings come from their lack of understanding, and from our obstacles we cry out and are saved, and from the evils that we willingly bring upon our souls we worry and are pained, as Solomon said (Proverbs 19): A man's wickedness will pervert his way, and the His heart will be troubled, and he will elaborate on this and explain that most of the evils that occur in humans are from harm to one another, such as fights and wars, or from harm to one's soul through excessive desire for food and consumption, and the like. It is not appropriate for someone to go into battle and be shot with arrows to cry out only for his soul, or for someone to eat bad foods and become a leper, or for someone who overindulges in consumption and becomes a skin for Jesus only for his foolishness. Similarly, you will see from them that someone who enters the dangers of the deserts and seas in order to become richer than his neighbors and to indulge in the pursuit of silver and gold and find hardships will go and Jesus and spend the rest of his life alone, and be bewildered by his misfortune, and God Almighty will not create a miracle in the world to help those who are crazy because of their shortcomings. And you will see in them that he who has gathered enough wealth to satisfy him sees himself as less fortunate and less fortunate than he who has gathered pearls in his treasury and complains about his fortune. And this too is a reduction of the standards, because the one who has acquired these additions has not acquired anything additional by himself and his own strength, but has acquired nothing by vanity or illusion or failure for himself, and the one who lacks these additions lacks nothing. The one who increases does not excel, and the one who decreases does not lack anything, according to what he has eaten and what he has gathered, and these are numerous at all times and in all places.

מיכי Staff replied 5 years ago

I mentioned there that there are contradictions in the Ramban's teaching on this matter, and several articles have already been written about it. I brought his words up not to discuss the Ramban's method, but to give a name to this common method.

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