Question

Hello Rabbi…
I recently read your book "The Science of Freedom." There you bring Maimonides' question: why were the Egyptians punished for their actions, if God had already decreed that this is what they would do, and if so they had no free choice. And you explained there his answer, that God essentially gave a slight bias to the souls of all the Egyptians in the direction of the desire to enslave the Jewish people, so that although each individual still had free choice, statistically there would be those who would indeed decide to give in to that desire.
But as far as I know, statistics is not something binding. That is, any statistical possibility can occur even if its probability is extremely low. So in this case, a situation could have arisen in which the Egyptian people decided not to enslave the Jewish people. If so, that decree of God, "and they shall enslave them and afflict them," is not really a decree or any certain outcome, but at most a statistical estimate of what would probably happen. Is that really what you meant in your book — that Maimonides' answer here is not a decree but only an estimate?