Q&A: God’s Intervention Through Human Choice 3
God’s Intervention Through Human Choice 3
Question
I know this topic has been discussed here quite a bit in the past, but because of its importance I’d appreciate some further clarification, and I hope something new: the Rabbi, in his classes on repentance, spoke about how in order to repent and change one’s values, there must be some external intervention into the person, and apparently that is the Holy One, blessed be He. If so, then we have found God’s intervention in the world—which is what was to be proven. I’d be glad to hear what I missed along the way.
Answer
That is not His intervention, but rather His giving us the power to choose. The intervention I’m talking about is a suspension of the laws of nature or of human choice. Here, it is giving the power to choose. In that sense, He is also involved in the laws of nature: He gives them the power to operate.
Discussion on Answer
Because our power to choose is a law of nature; it is constant. To pray that He give us the power to choose is like praying that the law of gravity should keep working.
I’m not sure that’s correct, because then the difficulty about the possibility of repentance comes back: if part of nature is the possibility of changing my values, then that is part of me. But we are talking about a power from outside me that influences me, and that is essentially divine intervention—and it must be there at that very moment of choice..
I think I understood, but if so, why would it not make sense to pray for that—that He give us the power to choose?