A foundational principle of Jewish belief is freedom of the will. If we deny the concept of freedom of the will, then the Torah itself loses significance because whether one observes or does not observe is not up to him but is predetermined for him. Without freedom of the will there can be no sense of accountability and therefore no concept of Schar v’Onesh (reward and punishment.)
Freedom of the will is the basis for human accountability and thus establishes the basis for the possibility of true repentance, Teshuva. Just like man can choose how to act, he can also choose to redress what he did. The Torah recognizes the importance of the possibility of Teshuva by giving to us a specific time from Rosh Hashana to Yom Hakippurim when Teshuva is encouraged, as well as the sacrificial system which is efficacious for Teshuva throughout the year. This parallels our daily efforts to carry out the promises we have made to improve.
Thus, the possibility of Teshuva and the central role that it plays in much of Jewish thought and belief is the absolute proof that Judaism maintains and emphasizes the importance of human moral freedom.
Nevertheless, it appears that the God of Judaism has rendered the ability to do Teshuva impossible. This is because we believe in a God who created the universe Ex Nihilo, is infinite, omnipotent, and above all omniscient. If that is true, it eliminates the process of human moral freedom. If God’s knowledge is complete and comprehensive and encompasses all of reality, how is it possible for man to exercise free will in the ethical realm and thus be accountable for his actions and be required to do Teshuva?
The Rambam described this matter in the clearest of terms.
. . . Perhaps you will say, does not God know everything that will be and before it occurs knew that this one will be righteous or wicked or did not know? If He knew that he will be righteous, it is impossible that he not be righteous. But if you will say that He knew that he will be righteous and it is possible for him to be wicked, then He did not know the thing correctly. . . (Mishne Torah, Mada, T’Shuvah 5:5 )
The Rambam acknowledged that this question is almost impossible to answer. He simply asserts that human freedom is an underlying principle of prophesy. The Rambam nevertheless, does indicate that in his definition of the nature of God which he described earlier in the Mishna Torah, he offers a clue which will become the basis for resolving this conundrum.
(The Raavid chastised the Rambam for raising issues which cannot be answered and only lead to confusion. The Rambam should have simply explained this issue as a matter of faith, he claims. Nevertheless, the Raavid attempted to logically answer this question by postulating that God’s knowledge is separate from His will and thus does not necessarily determine human action. [Ad locum])
The Raavid actually created a greater problem than he solved. First, if knowledge is truly separate from will (decree), is that not an example of a dualistic divinity? In addition, the highest aspect of God is His knowledge or mind. If the will is greater than the knowledge and can override it, then God would be a lesser, not a greater, being.)
The clue which the Rambam offered is derived from the following passage in which he describes the nature of God. The Rambam states:
The Holy One blessed be He recognizes His essence and knows it as it is. He does not know it with the knowledge which is external to Himself as we know. For we and our knowledge are not identical, but the Creator, blessed be He, He and his knowledge and His life are one from every perspective and in every aspect and in every way of unity. For if He was alive and would know with knowledge outside of Himself, there would be many gods. . .It follows that one can say, He is the Knower and He is the Known and He is the Thought itself, All is one. . . (Mishne Torah, Yesodei HaTorah, 2:10).
Although our minds can logically separate those three aspects (knowing, the thought, and the idea which is the content of the thought) when it comes to our existence, when it comes to God, we must maintain that the ontology and epistemology of God are one and the same. His mind understands His own existence and the world around Him which He created solely through his existence alone, and has no need for any sensory or external mediation to infuse that understanding, as do human beings. God, “because he knows Himself, He knows everything, because everything depends upon Him through His existence.” (Ibid.)
To the Rambam, it is this definition of God’s nature which becomes the basis of solving the conundrum which is presented by God’s infinite knowledge and human freedom. The solution to this problem is rooted in the interpretation of time. The Rambam implies that there is a distinction between Divine time and human time. That distinction of time is absolutely necessary to enable God to be totally different from man and, at the same time, give man the freedom to be human.
Divine time is concurrent in the sense that the past, present and future are condensed to occur simultaneously. Thus the whole separation that we make between the past, present and future is totally impossible when it comes to God. God has no foreknowledge or future knowledge, for that would imply a separation in time. He just has knowledge, which at once encompasses everything. It is just the opposite with created beings. Their existence only occurred as an ongoing process which is known as sequential time. They are constantly in flux and are always subject to change.
Men's future may be radically different from their past. If time would stand still their lives would end. God who is unchanging and not subject to things external to Himself thus exists eternally in a time framework which allows Him always to remain the same. This is the crucial distinction between God and man. It is this distinction which allows human beings to have the possibility and the freedom to make moral decisions.
Nevertheless, establishing the distinction between simultaneous or concurrent time which is applicable to God, and sequential time in which Man lives freely, presents a serious difficulty. How can God who exists in His time frame burst forth into human time and insert himself into human history which is clearly stated in the first of the Ten Commandments, “I am the Lord your God who brought you forth from the land of Egypt and from the place of bondage.” (Exodus, 20:2)
How does the Infinite Divine mind establish any relationship and communicate with a finite human mind which is inherently passive and is dependent on its senses? There can be no true relationship or commonality between the Creator and the being which He created. This is because a Divine mind is eternally active, and has no need of any mediation of any sense to understand the world which is external to Him. The human mind, however, requires that mediation to acquire any form of knowledge.
This is demonstrated by the fact that the people of Israel upon hearing God at Mount Sinai, were unable to process the Commandments and remained in state of absolute terror.
The Jewish answer to this question is the role that was assigned to Moshe, the greatest of all the prophets. God accomplished his revelation, not by entering the human time frame (with the exception of the revelation at Sinai and the difficulties with which it was accomplished), but rather drawing Moshe into His time. This is the sense in which Moshe is understood to be unique among the prophets.
The concept of the uniqueness of Moshe is stated several times in the Torah e.g. (Numbers 7:89, 9:8, 12:18) but most powerfully at the conclusion of the Torah itself, “There did never again arise in Israel a prophet such as Moshe who God knew face to face:” (Deut. 34:10).
The Rambam explains the uniqueness of Moshe in the following manner:
. . .What is the difference between the prophecy of Moshe to that of all the other prophets? All the other prophets could only prophesy in a dream state or a vision whereas our teacher Moshe is able to prophesy while he is awake and standing. . . all the other prophets prophesy through an angel, therefore what they see is through an allegory or a riddle. Our teacher Moshe, however, does not prophesy through an angel for it says, “I will speak to him mouth to mouth.” And it says that God spoke to Moshe,“face to face” ....That means that there is no allegory, but that he (Moshe) sees a thing as it really is... All the prophets do not prophesy anytime they want; our teacher Moshe is not like that, but anytime he wishes the Holy Spirit envelops him and prophesy rests upon him and he does not need to prepare for it for he is always ready and prepared [to speak to God] and stands [before Him] like the ministering angels...his mind is always tied or attached to God and the glory never left him and his face was lit up and he became sanctified like the angels” (Mishne Torah, Yesodei HaTorah 7:6).
Moshe, unlike any other human being, was able to engage God in a direct intellectual manner, mind to mind, without any mediation such as sensory perception, the use of imagination, being in a dream state or any angelic revelation. The knowledge he acquired was not clouded by passion or emotion and did not arise from desire or needs of the ego. In this sense the Torah could truly testify that Moshe was the most humble of any human being. (Numbers 12:3)
This solution, however, creates its own problem which in many ways is similar to the one it attempted to solve. We asked how could God abandon his divine time frame and enter human historical time but still remain an ineffable being? We now have to ask, how is it possible for Moshe to be drawn into God’s timeframe and still be a finite being?
(A corollary problem in dealing with the two time frames is the nature of the soul. We have the belief that after death the soul continues to exist in with God in Olam Habah. How is it possible for a created being, albeit an intangible one - the human soul - to exist in a Divine time frame? Does that not imply a commonality between God and a created being external to Him?)
Judaism was willing to live with these philosophical problems. It insisted, however, that there could be no conflation between God and man. They are absolutely separate and Jews may only worship God whose essence is ultimately unfathomable.
The underlying basis for maintaining the two time systems is to make possible the existence of an Infinite Omniscient Being that also allowed for the possibility of human freedom. It is that freedom that allows for human accountability and establishes a meaningful basis for the possibility of Teshuva.
Now that Yom Kippur is past and Hoshana Rabba almost upon us, it is incumbent upon us to act upon this freedom.