Q&A: Choosing Between Good and Evil for God
Choosing Between Good and Evil for God
Question
Hello, honorable Rabbi.
My name is Itai, and I would be glad to ask you:
Does God have free choice? A choice between good and evil?
It is known that a human being is superior to the angels because of his ability to choose between the two, but what about God?
This question occupies me because in my humble opinion, if the answer is that God cannot do this (choose evil and even fail), then seemingly man has an advantage over God.
With much thanks and appreciation
Answer
Why assume that He has no choice?
Discussion on Answer
Hello.
For example, one can assume there is a choice between creating the world or not.
The question is regarding good and evil—does He have a choice there as well?
If God has no urges, then in my opinion a human being who struggles with them is superior to Him…
This is the problem of perfection and self-perfection. Search the site.
The truth is that this only raises the difficulty even more sharply.
And
I derive two things from it:
1) Man has an advantage over God.
2) It’s not a fair game—to have to withstand something that even God is not capable of…
How do you answer that?
It doesn’t raise any difficulty.
1. I referred you to the relevant column.
2. It’s a completely fair game. Is the Holy One, blessed be He, incapable of withstanding this? He is not required to withstand it.
There is nothing to answer here. This seems to me just like strange hairsplitting.
Itai, you’re right. Let’s see God deal himself with the sadistic game He created.
The mere ‘possibility of choice’ is enough if it exists potentially, even if in practice there is no reason for Him to hesitate, because it is clear to Him what should be done, and He has no urges and the like that would pull Him to choose something different.