Free Will or God’s Will: Contradictory or Complementary? The power and capacity to choose is critical in Judaism. It is the basis upon which the giving of the Torah depends. For it is only in our freedom to choose that the role of Torah is meaningful. If we were mere moral automatons with no opportunity to choose right over wrong, or to learn and grow from our mistakes and limitations, not only would Torah be meaningless—our lives would have no purpose.
In this week’s parasha, Vayigash, Joseph dramatically reveals his identity to his brothers. They fully expect, justifiably, that from his position of power and authority, he would wreak vengeance upon them for having sold him into slavery. Instead, Joseph offers a theological get out of jail free card: You, my brothers, didn’t send me here—God did so that I would be in a position to save the Jewish people from famine.
In many ways, this is troubling. Did God truly control these events, thus robbing the brothers of free will and bringing preventable suffering in this family’s life? Or was this a fulfillment of Jewish destiny, in essence laying its groundwork by placing the Jewish people in Egypt, where, in later centuries, they would become slaves in need of a liberation, which eventually leads to the receiving of Torah at Sinai and ultimate realization of the Abrahamic covenant in the reclaiming of the Promised land? Or perhaps, this was a way for Joseph to let his brothers off the hook toward a reconciliation he could live with?
The contemporary commentator, Nechama Leibowitz, offers an insight which preserves essential free will while valuing the role of God in our lives: Fortunate is he to whom it is granted to detect in the metamorphoses of his daily existence and the vicissitudes of her personal affairs, the workings of Providence—a mission on which he has been sent by God.And so, ours is to live our lives fully, consciously and responsibly, and yet to seek ways to recognize and align our efforts, both the constructive and the errant-yet-instructive, with God’s vision for a better world.
– Rabbi Daniel Weiner
