Q&A: Free Choice
Free Choice
Question
Hello Rabbi, I read the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and noticed several times in which God "strengthens" someone's or some nation's heart, and by doing so essentially prevents their ability to choose.
What does that say about human free choice? Granted, these are extreme cases (although apparently Cain and Abel was also an extreme case, and there there was no divine intervention), but it does somewhat undermine the notion that a person has genuine freedom of choice.
Answer
In my opinion, it says nothing. On the contrary: if a person did not have real choice, then why would there be any need to strengthen his heart? These are only certain specific cases, and even in them, hardening the heart is not necessarily coercion but rather tilting the balance in one direction. In short, it says nothing at all about the general issue.
Discussion on Answer
Correct, but what difference does that make? There are very rare cases in which we have no choice, even though perhaps we are not aware of it. After all, even aside from that, there are situations in which a person acts without choice (an impulse that cannot be overcome, acting absentmindedly—like being on autopilot, and the like).
I don't know which cases you came across in the Bible, other than Pharaoh, so it's hard for me to answer.
Even if there is a larger plan, that does not contradict choice. Choices are always made within a framework that is forced upon us (the laws of nature are also part of that framework. We do not have the choice to fly).
Thank you for your answer, Rabbi.
It's true that at the basic level it seems there is free choice, but we cannot know when it is in fact a particular case, and that raises another question—why not intervene in other extreme cases? Say, world wars. It seems that hardening the heart is always on the negative side, tilting the scales toward creating more evil and not good—so God is not all that good (assuming God is not devoid of attributes)?
Although it could be that He also hardens things toward the good, but we have not encountered that in the Bible, and perhaps from a historical distance it is all part of a larger plan to reach the good (and then that is problematic in itself, because it means there is such a plan, and that completely negates human choice, because in the end we have to reach a certain point. At most, we have some degree of choice about which path to take to get there).