Q&A: Free Choice and Foreknowledge
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Free Choice and Foreknowledge
Question
Hello Rabbi,
How can a person have free choice if the Holy One, blessed be He, knows everything he is going to do? I would appreciate your answer.
Answer
In my opinion, the Holy One, blessed be He, does not know. I wrote about this in my books Two Carts and Science of Freedom. Search here on the site for “knowledge and choice,” and you’ll find many discussions about it.
Discussion on Answer
You can say that, and many indeed have. I referred you to Judith Ronen’s article and to my own remarks, where I show that it doesn’t really work.
Why can’t one say that the Creator’s knowledge is like someone who already saw the end of the movie in advance, and that it has no effect at all on a person’s choice?
Eyal