Q&A: On Free Choice
On Free Choice
Question
An interesting debate came up this Sabbath after we read in your book No Man Rules the Spirit about free choice and divine foreknowledge.
The following idea was suggested: The Holy One, blessed be He, knows what I will choose, because He knows everything. But even so, I still choose. What is this comparable to? A teacher who gave her students summer assignments, and she knows that Moshe will do the assignment professionally because she knows him, and that is indeed what happens. And she knows that Reuven will not do the assignment, and that is what happens. Yet both of them still chose. Does that work?
Answer
No. Because they could have acted differently from their usual pattern. The teacher estimates what will happen; she does not know what will happen. That is a completely different world. But this is explained in the book, and in more detail see the series of columns here on the site about foreknowledge and free choice, and the talkbacks that follow them (299 and onward).
Discussion on Answer
That’s what the Rabbi brings in the name of the Shelah. Read it.
I had another suggestion. The Holy One, blessed be He, knows what will happen after every action a person might take. In other words, He does not know what the person will choose, but He knows all the possibilities and the consequences of the choice.